Indian Philosophy v1.c8.s7: X Ethics
Indian Philosophy v1.c8.s7
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X Ethics
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Turning to the ethics of the Ṛg-Veda, we find that the conception of Ṛta is of great significance. It is the anticipation of the law of karma, one of the distinguishing characteristics of Indian thought. It is the law which pervades the whole world, which all gods and men must obey. If there is law in the world, it must work itself out. If by any chance its effects are not revealed here on earth, they must be brought to fruition elsewhere. Where law is, disorder and injustice are only provisional and partial. The triumph of the wicked is not absolute. The shipwreck of the good need not cause despair.
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Ṛta furnishes us with a standard of morality. It is the universal essence of things. It is the satya or the truth of things. Disorder or An-Ṛta is falsehood, the opposite of truth.¹ The good are those who follow the path of Ṛta, the true and the ordered. Ordered conduct is called a true vrata. Vratāni are the ways of life of good men who follow the path of Ṛta.² Consistency is the central feature of a good life. The good man of the Vedas does not alter his ways. Varuṇa, the perfect example of the follower of Ṛta, is a dhṛtavrata, of unalterable ways. When ritual grew in importance, Ṛta became a synonym for yajña or sacrificial ceremony.
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¹ See R.V., vii. 56. 12; ix. 115. 4; ii. 6. 10; iv. 5. 5; viii. 6. 2; 12; vii. 47. 3.
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² ix. 121. 1; x. 37. 5.
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After giving us a general account of the ideal life, the hymns detail the specific contents of the moral life. Prayers are to be offered to the gods. Rites are to be performed.³ The Vedas assume a very close and intimate relationship between men and gods. The life of man has to be led under the very eye of God. Apart from the duties owed to gods there are also duties to man.⁴ Kindness to all is enjoined; hospitality is reckoned a great virtue. "The riches of one who gives do not diminish. . . . He who possessed of food hardens his heart against the feeble man craving nourishment, against the sufferer coming to him (for help) and pursues (his own enjoyment even) before him, that man finds no consoler."⁵ Sorcery, witchcraft, seduction and adultery are condemned as vicious.⁶ Gambling is denounced. Virtue is conformity to the law of God, which includes the love of man. Vice is disobedience to this law. "If we have sinned against the man who loves us, have ever wronged friend or comrade, have ever done an injury to a neighbour who ever dwelt with us or even to a stranger, O Lord! free us from the guilt of this trespass."⁷ Some of the gods cannot be persuaded or diverted from the paths of righteousness by any amount of offerings. "In them is to be discerned neither right nor left, neither before nor behind. They neither wink nor sleep, they penetrate all things; they see through both evil and good;
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³ R.V., i. 104. 6; i. 108. 6; ii. 26. 3; x. 151.
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⁴ R.V., x. 117.
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⁵ viii. 6. 5; i. 2. 6.
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⁶ vii. 104. 8 ff; iv. 5. 5.
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⁷ R.V., v. 85. 7.
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everything, even the most distant, is near to them; they abhor and punish death; sustain and support all that lives."
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There are also indications of an ascetic tendency. Indra is said to have conquered heaven by asceticism.¹ But the dominant note is not one of asceticism. In the hymns we find a keen delight in the beauties of nature, its greatness, its splendour and its pathos. The motive of the sacrifices is love of the good things of the world. We have yet the deep joy in life and the world untainted by any melancholy gloom. Ascetic practices were, however, known. Fasting and abstinence were regarded as means of attaining various supernatural powers. In ecstatic moods it is said that the gods have entered into men.² The earliest reference to the ecstatic condition of ascetic sages is in Ṛg-Veda, x. 136.³
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¹ x. 127.
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² x. 86. 2.
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³ See also vii. 59. 6; x. 114. 2; x. 167. 1; x. 109. 4.
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The Puruṣa Sūkta has the first reference to the division of Hindu society into the four classes. To understand the natural way in which this institution arose, we must remember that the Aryan conquerors were divided by differences of blood and racial ancestry from the conquered tribes of India. The original Aryans all belonged to one class, every one being priest and soldier, trader and tiller of the soil. There was no privileged order of priests. The complexity of life led to a division of classes among the Aryans. Though to start with each man could offer sacrifices to gods without anybody's mediation, priesthood and aristocracy separated themselves from the proletariat. Originally the term Vaiśya referred to the whole people. As we shall see, when sacrifices assume an important rôle, when the increasing complexity of life rendered necessary division of life, certain families, distinguished for learning, wisdom, poetic and speculative gifts, became representatives in worship under the title of Purohita, or one set in front. When the Vedic religion developed into a regulated ceremonialism, these families formed themselves into a class. In view of their great function of conserving the tradition of the Aryans, this class was freed from the necessity of the struggle for existence. For those engaged in the feverish ardour of life cannot afford the freedom and the leisure necessary for thought and reflection. Thus one class concerned with the things of spirit came into existence. The Brāhmins are not a priesthood pledged to support fixed doctrines, but an intellectual aristocracy charged with the moulding of the higher life of the people. The kings who became the patrons of the learned Brāhmins were the Kṣatriyas or the princes who had borne rule in those days. The word Kṣatriya comes from Kṣatra, "rule, dominion." It has the same meaning in the Veda, the Avesta and the Persian inscriptions. The rest were classed as the people or the Vaiśyas. Originally occupational, the division soon became hereditary. In the period of the hymns, professions were not restricted to particular castes. Referring to the diversity of men's tastes, one verse says: "I am a poet, my father is a doctor, my mother a grinder of corn."¹ There are also passages indicative of the rising power of the Brāhmin. "In his own house he dwells in peace and comfort, to him for ever holy food flows richly, to him the people with free will pay homage—the king with whom the Brāhmin has precedence."² Those who followed the learned professions, those who fought, those who traded all belonged to one whole, which was divided by a wider gulf from the conquered races, who were grouped into two broad divisions of (a) the Draviḍians, forming the fourth estate, and (b) the aboriginal tribes. The division into Aryans and Dasyus is a racial one, being based on blood and descent. It is sometimes said that the aborigines converted and accepted by the Aryans are the Śūdras, while those excluded by them are the Panchamas.³ It is maintained by others that the Aryans had in their own communities Śūdras even before they came to the southern part of India. It is not easy to decide between these rival hypotheses.
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¹ ix. 112. 3.
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² iv. 50. 8.
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³ See Farquhar: *Outline of the Religious Literature of India*, p. 6.
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The system of caste is in reality neither Aryan nor Draviḍian, but was introduced to meet the needs of the time when the different racial types had to live together in amity. It was then the salvation of the country, whatever its present tendency may be. The only way of conserving the culture of a race which ran the great risk of being absorbed by the superstitions of the large numbers of native inhabitants, was to pin down rigidly by iron bonds the existing differences of culture and race. Unfortunately this device to prevent the social organisation from decay and death ultimately prevented it even from growing.¹ The barriers did not show any signs of weakening when the tide of progress demanded it. While they contributed to the preservation of the social order they did not help the advancement of the nation as a whole. But this gives us no right to condemn the institution of caste as it was originally introduced. Only caste made it possible for a number of races to live together side by side without fighting each other. India solved peaceably the inter-racial problem which other people did by a decree of death. When European races conquered others, they took care to efface their human dignity and annihilate their self-respect. Caste enabled the Vedic Indian to preserve the integrity and independence of the conquering as well as the conquered races and promote mutual confidence and harmony.
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¹ Referring to the hardening of classes into castes, Rhys Davids writes : " It is most probable that this momentous step followed upon and was chiefly due to the previous establishment of a similar hard and fast line preventing any one belonging to the non-Aryan tribes from inter-marrying with an Aryan family or being incorporated into the Aryan race. It was the hereditary disability the Aryans had succeeded in imposing upon races they despised, which, reacting within their own circle and strengthened by the very intolerance that gave it birth, has borne such bitter fruit through so many centuries" (Hibbert Lectures, p. 23).
Cites (1)
- Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit