A short article from the magazine SREE SAJJANA-TOSHANI or THE HARMONIST
Edited by Paramahamsa Paribrajakacharyya Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj. Published between 1927 – 1936
The soul is proclaimed by the Shastras to be a transcendental entity who is located in a plane that is absolutely free from all mundane grossness and defects of any kind. The soul knows no want. The soul is full of everlasting joy. Even the sorrows of the soul are only a more exquisite form of real joy. This conception is meant to point to a state of things that is exactly the opposite of what we experience in this world.
The joys of this world are probably more deceptive than even its sorrows. But there is no real depth, no substantive value either in the joys or in the sorrows of this life. The tragedy of these joys and sorrows consists in their being altogether shallow and wholly brittle. When a father sheds tears for his dead child, he mourns the loss of his own pleasure without caring to think about the fate of the child. Selfishness of the unlovable type has become ingrained in human nature. Our laughters and tears are alike deceitful. They are the reflexes of gain or loss of ephemeral, trivial, ugly sensuous pleasures. Bankrupt commercialism cannot provide the due incentive for the real function of the soul, the realisation of which can alone meet our proper requirements.
The Pastimes of Sree Krishna in Braja are condemned by a type of so- called moralists to whom they appear to resemble the uncovered sexual activities of the state of nature. There is nothing like moral restraints in Braja. There is not even the attitude that corresponds to such restraint. But the true explanation of this peculiarity that is offered by persons, whose immaculate souls have not to hide any inner dirts under the whitewash of the conventional morality of this world, can be perversely disbelieved only by those who have absolutely no taste for the reality.
The votaries of mundane aesthetics also object to the Pastimes of Braja on the score of their ugly grossness. Besides there is always that revolting horror of one male person claiming to monopolize the enjoyment of all the adulterous females, both married and unmarried, of that strange realm. Is this not both wicked and dull ?
It is undoubtedly horrible, if it is enacted on the mundane plane by mundane agents. No sane man requires to be informed of the grossness of such a picture. But why should the corres-ponding activity on the perfect plane of the reality be under the necessity of hiding itself after the best (?) customs of the most civilized society of this impure world ? The Shastras do not tell us that the land of Braja is inhabited by men and women possessing bodies of flesh. Why should we, therefore, be anxious to subject the residents of Braja to restrictions that do not really improve the gross and unwholesome conditions of mundane existence ?
If the soul is free from materiality, that is from unwholesome possibilities, why should his performances be not full of all-goodness, all-intellectuality, all-beauty ? Why should we be thinking of our present wretched condition when we are asked to contemplate instead the occurrences on the eternal plane of the souls in his unalloyed state ? Why should we be determined to drag the moral and immoral filth of this unsatisfactory existence to the naturally pure atmosphere of the transcendental realm ?
The reason for such perversity is that we are unpardonably vain of our earthly performances. By the cultivation of exclusive addiction to ignorance, malice and filthy living, through countless Ages, by means of every type of animal and vegetable body, we have developed a stubborn antipathy to Truth, Beauty and Goodness. We even consider it to be our highest duty to defend this monstrous ideal of human life, despite our long experience of its absolutely untrue, absolutely ugly and absolutely wicked character.
The historic sense is not a help on the path of spiritual endeavour. Rightly understood, history should impress upon man the essentially unwholesome and trivial nature of the worldly course. But it is unfortunately the cult of historicity to place the ugly events of this world in the seductive perspective of a corrupt imagination. If the spiritual values of the events, that are most loudly advertised by empiric history, be properly scrutinized, such examination at once reveals this misleading perspective of all secular history to persons who are not hopelessly addicted to an imaginary ideal of mundane existence.
It is not necessary for any branch of empiric knowledge to set itself in deliberate opposition to the Absolute Truth. It is the only proper function of all branches of empiric study to serve the Absolute Truth, by their negative realisations. No branch of empiric study need arrogate to itself praise to which it has no claim. No branch of empiric study is undertaken for the search of the Absolute Truth. Empiric study is valuable as a codified record of our disapointing worldly experience. It cannot go beyond experience. It cannot properly perform even this modest task unless it is aware of its own limitations. The so-called achievements of the race in the political field, which constitute the most important department of historical investigations, are not achievements of the soul. They are the results of the pitiless operations of the deluding energy of Godhead for occupying the attention of man in the concerns of this world and thereby to force him to undervalue and postpone sine die the serious consideration of the supremely needful concerns of his soul. This aspect of the great events of the world should be represented in the proper manner for presenting secular history in its true perspective.
The false value, that has been set upon the history of the race by writers who happen to be utterly devoid of all spiritual taste, has degraded the outlook of man and made him long for those very things that are neither good nor beautiful, nor lasting. A large body of literature, eulogising this undesirable standard of life, has been produced by the deluded mentality of man. This literature in its turn has set the standard for what should be regarded as good, beautiful and of permanent (?) value in the civilizations of the world. What a mountain of falsehoods has been laboriously piled up for preventing the view of the Truth.
Aesthetics is an important branch of mundane science, art and literature. It shares their quality in its preference of chaff to the goodly grain. The beauty of the body of flesh of man and animal is its ultimate source of inspiration (?) equally with the rest. In this respect, it goes hand in hand with secular poetry and painting. Those aspects of phenomenal Nature, that appeal to the senses of man, are regarded as ipso facto beautiful for their bearing upon his material senses.
Man is in love with certain aspects of the manifestations of colour, smell, sound, taste, touch and locomotion in Nature. He supposes by a kind of argument from design, that the world has been made for the gratification of his senses. He also supposes that his only legitimate function is to seek to augment and diversify the sensuous pleasures of life by compelling Nature to yield all her treasures for his enjoyment. It is also supposed that this ideal of happiness is being realized by man with the help of the different branches of the Arts and Sciences.
Any person, who questions the wisdom of following a course for the convenient reason that it happens to present itself when we choose to seek for it, is often hastily regarded as speculative and wanting in the practical sense. He is reminded of the achievements of modern civilization produced by the systematic pursuit of such method, and to compare the present state of the affairs of man all over the world with the past. Should one still persist in supposing that it is all misleading, useless and wicked ?
Let us take the case of modern painting. The spirit of the Age is sought to be faithfully mirrored therein. What more can Art do for us ? Should it not be the function of creative Art to try to invest our present life with imaginery charms for pandering to our sensuous satisfaction ? If the painter gives us something, which does not point the way for the gratification of our aggravated appetite for earthly enjoyment, how should he be supposed to possess the true artistic insight ? If he understands the needs of our natures, he should give us what we really want. It is not his business to give us what we should desire to have.
We are in earnest about the living present and want to enjoy this life as fully as its brief span and questionable resources will permit. We want to do so by means of all our senses. We also want Art to help us in this matter, The senses stand in need of both gross and refined pleasures. Both varieties have to be supplied in abundance by the Arts and Sciences to meet this demand of our nature. The propriety of following this course is supposed to be self-evident. At any rate, no state or society would last for a day, if it chooses to follow a different path. Every existing institution is and must needs be a contrivance for increasing the scope of gratification of man’s senses. The hope of man points to the prospect that Nature will be available to be fully enjoyed by man by means of these institutions, at no distant date.
The gratification of the senses is the given legitimate purpose of life. The mind is led by the senses. The mind is set over the senses for serving them. The mind enables the senses to follow the path of their common interest. The mental function is fulfilled by serving the activities of the senses. The test of good painting for instance, should consist in this that it satisfies the senses directly or indirectly. If it fails to gratify the senses, the mind should at once busy itself for finding a way to pacify the offended senses. The senses dominate the whole scheme.