The anguish of the inner soul of India found expression
through these
passionate words of the young Gadadhar. For what did his
unsophisticated
eyes see around him in Calcutta, at that time the metropolis of India
and
the centre of modem culture and learning? Greed and lust held sway in
the higher levels of society, and the occasional religious practices
were merely
outer forms from which the soul had long ago departed. Gadadhar had
never
seen anything like this at Kamarpukur among the simple and pious
villagers.
The sadhus and wandering monks whom he had served in his boyhood had
revealed to him an altogether different India. He had been impressed by
their devotion and purity, their self-control and renunciation. He had
learnt
from them and from his own intuition that the ideal of life as taught
by
the ancient sages of India was the realization of God.
When Ramkumar reprimanded Gadadhar for neglecting a "bread-winning
education", the inner voice of the boy reminded him that the legacy of
his ancestors — the legacy of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Sankara, Ramanuja,
Chaitanya — was not worldly security but the Knowledge of God. And
these
noble sages were the true representatives of Hindu society. Each of
them
was seated, as it were, on the crest of the wave that followed each
successive
trough in the tumultuous course of Indian national life. All
demonstrated
that the life current of India is spirituality. This truth was revealed
to
Gadadhar through that inner vision which scans past and future in one
sweep, unobstructed by the barriers of time and space. But he was
unaware
of the history of the profound change that had taken place in the land
of
his birth during the previous one hundred years.
Hindu society during the eighteenth century had been passing through
a period of decadence. It was the twilight of the Mussalman rule. There
were anarchy and confusion in all spheres. Superstitious practices
dominated
the religious life of the people. Rites and rituals passed for the
essence of
spirituality. Greedy priests became the custodians of heaven. True
philosophy
was supplanted by dogmatic opinions. The pundits took delight in vain
polemics.
In 1757 English traders laid the foundation of British rule in India.
Gradually the Government was systematized and lawlessness suppressed.
The Hindus were much impressed by the military power and political
acumen of the new rulers. In the wake of the merchants came the English
educators, and social reformers, and Christian missionaries — all
bearing a
culture completely alien to the Hindu mind. In different parts of the
country
educational institutions were set up and Christian churches
established.
Hindu young men were offered the heady wine of the Western culture of
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and they drank it
to the
very dregs.
The first effect of the draught on the educated Hindus was a complete
effacement from their minds of the time-honoured beliefs and traditions
of
Hindu society. They came to believe that there was no transcendental
Truth;
The world perceived by the senses was all that existed. God and
religion
were illusions of the untutored mind. True knowledge could be derived
only from the analysis of nature. So atheism and agnosticism became the
fashion of the day. The youth of India, taught in English schools, took
malicious delight in openly breaking the customs and traditions of
their
society. They would do away with the caste-system and remove the
discriminatory
laws about food. Social reform, the spread of secular education,
widow remarriage, abolition of early marriage — they considered these
the
panacea for the degenerate condition of Hindu society.
The Christian missionaries gave the finishing touch to the process of
transformation. They ridiculed as relics of a barbarous age the images
and
rituals of the Hindu religion. They tried to persuade India that the
teachings
of her saints and seers were the cause of her downfall, that her Vedas,
Puranas, and other scriptures were filled with superstition.
Christianity, they
maintained, had given the white races position and power in this world
and
assurance of happiness in the next; therefore Christianity was the best
of
all religions. Many intelligent young Hindus became converted. The man
in the street was confused. The majority of the educated grew
materialistic
in their mental outlook. Everyone living near Calcutta or the other
strong-holds
of Western culture, even those who attempted to cling to the orthodox
traditions of Hindu society, became infected by the new uncertainties
and
the new beliefs.
But the soul of India was to be resuscitated through a spiritual
awakening.
We hear the first call of this renascence in the spirited retort of the
young
Gadadhar: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning
education?"
Ramkumar could hardly understand the import of his young brother's
reply. He described in bright colours the happy and easy life of
scholars
in Calcutta society. But Gadadhar intuitively felt that the scholars,
to use
one of his own vivid illustrations, were like so many vultures, soaring
high
on the wings of their uninspired intellect, with their eyes fixed on
the
charnel-pit of greed and lust. So he stood firm and Ramkumar had to
give way.