The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s6: Śākya as Remaker of Man

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s6

Language: English

Śākya as Remaker of Man

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In every system of political and social philosophy, idealistic or realistic, and ancient, medieval or modern, the problems of personality cannot but occupy a prominent place.¹² It may not be clear, except to the idealists like Jellinek who believe in the "autolimitation" of the state, as to whether ethics is to be treated as a part of politics or politics as a part of ethics. To such "monists" the problem does not exist. But even to realists the close relations between the two, functional, causal, psychological or otherwise, pragmatic as they are, bring before our eyes an extensive common ground of activities and norms. Naturally, therefore, every individual who deals with "values" and is therefore a "futurist," every moralist who is trying to transform Nature and the world by the "creative urges" of the spirit, every educational scheme that is looking forward to the "remaking" of man or societal reconstruction, and every propaganda that is furnished with an ethical bias, social message or "spiritual" content belong, as a matter of course, to the domain of political speculation. Politics can then annex virtually the whole of Śākyan categories in a generic manner to itself.

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¹² Re the place of Buddhist thought in Hindu political institutions and theories see the present author's "*On some Methods and Conclusions in Hindu Politics*" in the *Indian Historical Quarterly* (Calcutta, March 1927). Cf. also his *Political Philosophies Since 1905* (Madras 1926). See W. E. Hocking: *Man and the State* (New Haven 1926), pp. 190-191, and *Types of Philosophy* (New York 1929), pp. 441-442; U. Redanò: *Lo Stato Etico* (Florence 1927), pp. 266-278; O. Koellreutter: *Allgemeine Staatslehre* (Tübingen, 1933), pp. 6-10; G. del Vecchio: *Etica, Diritto e Stato* (Rome 1934), pp. 7, 24, and *La Crisi dello Stato* (Rome 1934), pp. 37-40 for different idealistic standpoints of modern thought in regard to the relations between morality and politics. See also Hubert: "Le Problème Moral" (*Revue Philosophique*, Paris, November-December 1934, pp. 339-342, March-April, 1935, pp. 228-229), Tazerout: "La Pensée Politique de Moeller van den Bruck" (*Revue Internationale de Sociologie*, January-February, 1936, pp. 71-76), *La Philosophie Tchéchoslovaque Contemporaine* (Prague, 1935), chs. on Masaryk, pp. 19-49, R. R. Ergang: *Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism* (New York 1931), Moeller van den Bruck: *Das dritte Reich* (Hamburg 1931), Capek: *Masaryk Tells His Story* (London 1934); H. E. Barnes: *History of Western Civilization* (New York), Vol. II (1935) pp. 1067-1068.

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From Pythagoras to Socrates, from the Sophists to Seneca, from Jesus to Luther, from Calvin to Kant, and from Renouvier, Fichte, Carlyle and Mazzini to Dewey, Hobhouse, Masaryk and Moeller van den Bruck,—each one is occupied with *le problème moral* in its comprehensive sense as analysed by Huber. It is the drame de *l'Esprit*, the drama of the spirit, in which each one is interested. This is the drama which is "the more serious because it is the more subtle, which although less apparent in a material form affects nevertheless the entire human organism from within." The moralizings of Śākyasimha (B.C. 623-543) and of the Sākyan missionaries as lectures to the human spirit possess the same significance for political thought as those of their European contemporaries, Socrates, the Sophists and others down to Plato (B.C. 430-347) and his successors of ancient Europe.

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The foundations of political action are to be found in these talks of Śākya and speculations of the Sākyans, directed, as they are, to the evocation of the *seelische Kraft* (strength of the soul) and energizing of the "will" or transformation of the "latent energies" into the kinetic, of which Haushofer speaks in *Jenseits der Grossmächte*.

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Śākya's lectures to the Vajjis on the "seven conditions of welfare," like many of his other sayings to individuals and groups, may in a general manner be somewhat compared to Fichte's *Reden an die Deutsche Nation* (*Addresses to the German People*, 1808), although intended for other races and regions and for the nineteenth century. As contributions to political thought, broadly considered, they deserve a proper recognition in a study of *Nīti* or *Artha*, i.e., political morals.

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Historically, Śākya's moralizings or addresses to the people of Magadha can be taken to a certain extent as continuations of the "harangues" of the Vedic¹³ poets to their *viṣ* and represent the same mentality as embodied in the dicta of the *Dharmaśāstras* or the stories of the *Mahābhārata* and later literature.

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¹³ H. Zimmer: *Altindisches Leben* (Berlin 1879), pp. 103-104, 118-122, 127-128, Whitney and Lanman: *Atharva Veda Saṁhita* (Cambridge, Mass., 1905), First Half, pp. 87-88, A. B. Keith: *Rig Veda Brahmaṇas* (Cambridge, Mass., 1920), pp. 329-330.

Linked texts (1)

Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit