History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.386

v7.c94.386

As a result of the two world wars in which unspeakable atrocities and barbarities²⁴²⁷ were committed by highly educated and organized countries most of whose people professed Christianity, there is a revulsion of feeling and several eminent men are busy in attributing the present difficulties to the decay of religious belief and in inviting humanity to return to religion. But the crux of the problem is what religious beliefs and practices are to be inculcated and practised by men in the present age. It appears to the present writer that religions can hardly be a panacea for the ills of the world. Very large blocks of modern educated men are dissatisfied with the tenets and practices of several current religions and their authoritative books. The real difficulty to be grappled with is to define what must be the content of the faith that would appeal to and secure the allegiance of most or all good, intellectual and educated modern men. At different times different virtues (such as monachism, charity, humility, patriotism, social service or philanthropbism) were preached as of supreme importance. The growth of the virtue of patriotism and of the feeling of nationalism in Western countries was not due to Christianity's teachings but to various other causes in Europe's political and economic history. There are religious virtues, heroic virtues, amiable virtues &c. The Christian people of Europe and America during the last four centuries achieved great wealth and prosperity by throwing to the winds the virtues preached in the Sermon on the Mount, by extending their colonial empires for exploiting vast regions, by decimating millions of unoffending backward races, by hunting human beings as if they were beasts and forcing on them slavery and by preaching from the house tops the great need of competition in all spheres and worshipping it as if it were God. After the holocaust of the great wars, many eminent men, not only religious men, but even those that occupy positions in Government and political life, preach the necessity of the moral sense, of benevolence and kindness towards others, restraint, unselfishness and a desire to allow others to share in the good things of life, which virtues were emphasized for all men in the Bṛ. Up. V. 2. 1-3 quoted above²⁴²⁸