THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

IV. 2.Vyasa: Some Characteristics171untouched by either sin or virtue. But the crown of the Vedantais only for the highest; the moral calamities that arise from theattempt of an unprepared soul to identify self with God is sufficientlyindicated in the legend of Indra and Virochana. Similarlythis higher ethic is for the prepared, the initiated only, becausethe raw and unprepared soul will seize on the non-distinctionbetween sin and virtue without first compassing the godlike puritywithout which such non-distinction is neither morally admissiblenor actually conceivable. From this arises the unwillingness ofHinduism, so ignorantly attributed by Europeans to priestcraftand the Brahmin, to shout out its message to the man in thestreet or declare its esoteric thought to the shoeblack and thekitchen-maid. The sword of knowledge is a double-edged weapon;in the hands of the hero it can save the world, but it mustnot be made a plaything for children. Krishna himself ordinarilyinsists on all men following the duties and rules of conduct towhich they are born and to which the cast of their temperamentspredestined them. Arjuna he advises, if incapable of rising to thehigher moral altitudes, to fight in a just cause, because it is theduty of the caste, the class of souls to which he belongs. Throughoutthe Mahabharata he insists on this class-standpoint that everyman must meet the duties to which his life calls him in a spiritof disinterestedness, — not, be it noticed, of self-abnegation,which may be as much a fanaticism and even a selfishness asthe grossest egoism itself. It is because Arjuna has best fulfilledthis ideal, has always lived up to the practice of his class in aspirit of disinterestedness and self-mastery that Krishna loves himabove all human beings and considers him and him alone fit toreceive the higher initiation.s Evay' mya te_Û yog" p[oKt" puratn" -.Kto_is me s%a ceit rhSy' öetduÒmm( -- 1sa evÀyaÌ mayÀ te'dya yogaÕ proktaÕ purÀtanaÕbhakto'si me sakhÀ ceti rahasyaÌ hyetaduttamam“This is the ancient Yoga which I tell thee today; becausethou art My adorer and My heart's comrade; for this is the highestmystery of all.”1Bhagavadgita, IV. 3.