PERSONAL ELEMENT IN SPIRITUAL LIFE.
The following is a lecture delivered at the Theistic Conference held at Calcutta in 1906:
The title of the Lecture is the “## Personal Element in Spiritual Life,” and by the word “spiritual” I do not mean merely the religious or ethical side but even the highest ideal of manhood or womanhood. At this great moment, when there is abroad so much enthusiasm and when all the best energies and ambitions of the people of India are directed towards the reestablishing of the social and political ideals of the country, it is well for us to remember that no results are of any lasting value that are not obtained by the light of the spirit. I say that all the glories of Greece and all the grandeur that was of Rome have perished because of want of this light of the spirit. But the advancing hope for the salvation of India lies in this magnificent fact that our civilisation in the past was highly spiritual and the powers of the spirit, though they may be dimmed, can never die. (Applause.) I want you to realise, all of you who are here present, that each of you is an indispensable spark in the rekindling of the manifold fires of National life.
Many of you, I have no doubt, are acquainted with that great Persian poet and astronomer, Omar Khyyam, whose beautiful poetry is equally the wonder and delight of East and West. Some there are who say he is somewhat of a Sufi and more that he was merely a dreamer of dreams, but whether he was a Sufi or a dreamer of dreams, his teachings and his singings of lore among the roses and bulbuls of the Persian gardens have contributed to the literature of the world one immortal phrase which might stand for the very epigram of the scriptures. It might stand for the very essence of all the spiritual and secular doctrine and traditions handed down to man about the personal element in spiritual life. He says in his wonderful Rubyat :—
“ I sent my soul into the invisible, Some letter of that after life to spell, And by and by my soul returned to me Answered, myself am heaven and hell.”
Turn where you will, to the scriptures of the Hindus or the mandates of Zoroaster, the Koran of the Mahomedans, to the teachings of Christ or the teachings of Lord Buddha under the Bo Tree, you will find this great point of unity among them, that in all these religions the greatest emphasis is laid on two essential points. First, terrible individual responsibility of every human being for his own destiny; and, secondly, the unique and incommunicable personal relationship with its Master Spirit. The life of the spirit is not a thing that we can attain, but it is interwoven like a golden thread through the very fabric of our existence. I want you to realise, my friends, that even so there is a state of divinity which it is possible, nay, it is necessary, that we must develop up to its full fire of godhead. There is no one among you so weak or so small that he is not necessary to the divine scheme of eternal life. There is no one among you so small, so frail, so insignificant that he cannot contribute to the divinity of the world. If he should fail let him fail. Does success or failure count for anything in the life of the spirit ? No; it is endeavour that is the very soul of life.
You all remember that when Napolean, the greatest hero of the 19th century, was taunted with his lack of ancestry, how superbly he held up his head and said, “ I am the ancestor.” I hope that each of you has that self-knowledge and that self-reverence that enable you to say, “ I am the ancestor.” For it is the bounden duty of every human being to contribute something individual and distinct to the sum-total of the world’s progress to justify his existence (hear, and applause)–and is there any among you so small in spirit that he will not realise the dictum that Plato sent forth into the world–Man, know thyself. Self-knowledge is only the first step in the ultimate destiny of man. You, sons of India, whom I speak to to-day, and you, daughters, whom I am also addressing, know that you are responsible for the call upon you for ennobled lives, not merely for the glory and prosperity of your country, but for the higher patriotism that says the world is my country, and all men are my brothers. You must ask for the larger vision that looks beyond the fleeting pomps and glories of to-day and knows that the destiny of the souls lies in immortality and eternity. Friends, it is not for me to speak to you, no better than I can tell you, what an infinity of the divinity is hidden within you. It is not for me to point the way to you, it is for you to pray in secret, and to reverence that beauty within your lives, those divine principles that inspire us. It is for you to be the prisms of the love of God.