THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

344 The Harmony of Virtuemost commanding Hindu ideal. It is for this reason that Sri Krishnalaid so much stress on the perfect Yogin's cleaving to life andhuman activity even after his need of them was over, lest thepeople, following, as they always do, the example of their best,turn away from their dharma and bastard confusion reign. Theideal Yogin is no withdrawn and pent-up force, but ever engagedin doing good to all creatures, either by the flood of the divineenergy that he pours on the world or by himself standing in thefront of humanity, its leader in the march and the battle, butunbound by his works and superior to his personality.Moreover the word Vedanta is usually identified with thestrict Monism and the peculiar theory of mÀyÀ a established bythe lofty and ascetic intellect of Shankara. But it is the Upanishadsthemselves and not Shankara's writings, the text and notthe commentary, that are the authoritative Scripture of the Vedantin.Shankara's, great and temporarily satisfying as it was, isstill only one synthesis and interpretation of the Upanishads. Therehave been others in the past which have powerfully influencedthe national mind and there is no reason why there should notbe a yet more perfect synthesis in the future. It is such a synthesisembracing all life and action in its scope that the teachingsof Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda have been preparing.What is dimly beginning now is a repetition on a wider stage ofwhat happened once before in India, more rapidly but to smallerissues, when the Buddha lived and taught his philosophy andethics to the Aryan nations. Then as now a mighty spirit, it mattersnot whether Avatar or Vibhuti, the full expression of God inman or a great outpouring of the divine energy, came down amongmen and brought into their daily life and practice the force andimpulse of utter spirituality. And this time it is the full light andnot a noble part, unlike Buddhism, which, expressing Vedanticmorality, yet ignored a fundamental reality of Vedanta and wastherefore expelled from its prime seat and cradle. The materialresult was then what it will be now, a great political, moral andsocial revolution which made India the Guru of the nations andcarried the light she had to give all over the civilised world,moulding ideas and creating forms which are still extant and aliving force. Already the Vedanta and the Yoga have exceeded