Gita Rahasya -Tilak 95

Gita Rahasya -Tilak

CHAPTER IV THE MATERIALISTIC THEORY OF HAPPINESS (ADHIBHAUTIKA SUKHAVADA) This feature is firstly noticed in the living world in the pro- duction of progeny and protecting it. In those minute organisms in which the difference of the sexes has not been developed, the body of one organism is seen to grow until it breaks into two organisms ; or, it may even be said, that this minute organism sacrifices its own life for the sake of its progeny, that is to say, for the sake of another. In the same way, animals of both sexes in grades of life higher than that of these organisms, are seen to willingly sacrifice their own interests in the living world for the maintenance of their progeny; and this quality is seen to be always growing; so- that, even in the most aboriginal societies, man is seen willingly helping, not only his own progeny, but also his tribe; and therefore, the highest duty in this world of man, who is the crown jewel of the living world, is to attempt to perma- nently do away with the present apparent conflict between self-interest and other's-interest by further developing this ten- dency of created beings of finding happiness in other's-interest as if it was self-interest, which is observed to become stronger and stronger in the rising grades of creation.This argument is correct. There is nothing new in the principle that, as the virtue of philanthrophy is to be seen even in the dumb world, in the shape of protection of progeny, it is the highest duty of enlightened man to carry that virtue to its perfection. Only,. as the knowledge of the material sciences has now considerably increased, it is now possible to develops more systematically the Materialistic demonstration of this principle. Although the point of view of our philosophers was Metaphysical,, yet, it has been stated in our ancient treatises that : astadasa purananam saram saram samuddhrtam l paropakarah punyaya papaya parapidanam II that is, "doing good to others is meritorious, and doing harm, to others, sinful ; this is the sum and substance of the eighteen Puranas" ; and, even Bhartrhari says that : "svartho yasya parartha eva sa puman ekah satam agranih", i. e., "that man with whom other's-interest has become self-interest is the best of good men". But, when we consider the scale of life gradually rising from the minutest organisms to the human race, another question also arises, namely : is the virtue of philanthrophy the only virtue which has been fully developed in the human race, or have other benevolent (sattvika) virtues, such as justice, kindness, wisdom, far-sightedness, logic, courage, perseverance, forgiveness, control of the organs, etc., also been developed in man ? When one thinks of this, one has to say that all virtues have been more fully developed in the human race than in any other living being.