The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c11.83

c11.83

Professor Huxley in his *Evolution and Ethics* (p. 65) has subjected the Hindu ideal to severe criticism. According to him the *summum bonum* of the Hindu is a state of impassive quasi-somnambulism which but for its acknowledged holiness might run the risk of being confounded with idiocy. It leads to the abandonment of property, social ties, family affections, and common companionship, until all that remains of a man is the impassive attenuated mendicant monk, self-hypnotised into cataleptic trances which the deluded mystic takes for foretastes of final union with Brahma. Professor Huxley has in mind the extreme case of Yogin of the later time, who confounds hocus-pocus and humbug with religion. As a matter of fact the Upanishad religion is a religion of perfect freedom, and equally as a matter of fact the religious of the Upanishads do find it advisable as a rule to retire from active life after having done their duty in active life.