THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

178The Harmony of Virtueand a hermit; he does it cheerfully and unflinchingly; but whenSita is taken from him, it is his duty as a husband to rescue herfrom her ravisher and as a Kshatriya to put Ravana to death ifhe persists in his wrong-doing. This duty also he pursues withthe same unflinching energy as the first. He does not shrink fromthe path of the right because it coincides with the path of selfinterest.The Pandavas also go without a word into exile andpoverty, because honour demands it of them; but their ordealover, they will not, though ready to drive compromise to its utmostverge, consent to succumb utterly to Duryodhana, for it istheir duty as Kshatriyas to protect the world from the reign ofinjustice, even though it is at their own expense that injusticeseeks to reign. The Christian and Buddhistic doctrine of turningthe other cheek to the smiter, is as dangerous as it is impracticable.The continual European see-saw between Christ on the oneside and the flesh and the devil on the other, with the longertrend towards the latter comes straight from a radically false moraldistinction and the lip profession of an ideal which mankind hasnever been either able or willing to carry into practice. The disinterestedand desireless pursuit of duty is a gospel worthy ofthe strongest manhood; that of the cheek turned to the smiter isa gospel for cowards and weaklings. Babes and sucklings maypractise it, because they must, but with others it is a hypocrisy.The gospel of the niØkÀma dharma and the great poeticalcreations which exemplify and set it off by contrast, this is thesecond aspect of Vyasa's genius which will yet make him interestingand important to the whole world.