History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.374.1

v7.c94.374.1

The followers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (all believing in one God and one Book) did not hesitate for centuries to inculcate their doctrines and practices by terrible persecutions and bloody wars. This spirit is very shocking to people brought up in Hinduism or Buddhism. If Rationalists substitute blocks of humanity or the leaders of such blocks for worship and authority, humanity itself would soon be wiped out. Conceding for argument that the existence of an omnipotent and omniscient Power cannot be proved to the satisfaction of the so-called rationalists, the present writer feels that it is for the good of most societies consisting of millions of common men and women that they believe in God and the individual soul. Most men are influenced to keep to the path of virtue and right by the fear of God, by the prickings of conscience (which is the inner light implanted in man by God), by the fear of public opinion, and by fear of punishment at the hands of the rulers of the State (vide Śāntiparva quoted in H. of Dh. vol. III. p. 389 note 619). Those who reject the first of these would have to reject the 2nd also and would have to fall back upon hedonism (the greatest pleasure for themselves) or the idea of greatest good of the greatest number or progress towards some ideal state of society painted by imagination. The pursuit of purely secular or worldly happiness is incompatible with the precepts and ideals of Hinduism and all higher religions.