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SATYAGRAHA
crs of perception and action." 15 That is the other, the secret, side of matsya-ryāya, the principle of the fish. To us of the West, such a statement in a work of the kind that we have discussed in our former lectures may seem an insincere simulation of political “idealism." But Kautilya's work is absolutely devoid of such pretensions. Hypocrisy is taught as a political device, not cmployed as an excuse for teaching. To understand how such a realist as the first chancellor of the Maurya dynasty could have intended the above statement to be taken scriously, the Western reader must bear in mind that always, in India, the Holy Power has been taken seriously. The Brāhmans, able to control and deploy it by means of their magic forinulac, were indispensable advisers and assistants to the kings; the Holy Power could be a secret weapon in their hands. They did not think of the law of the fish as something contrary to the law of spiritual self-mastery. Might wins, they knew, and might makes right. But, according to their view, there are many kinds of might, and the inightiest might of all is that of the Holy Power. This, furthermore, is also "right"; for it is nothing less than the essence and manifestation of Truth itself.16
Ahimsā, “non-violence', non-killing," is the first principle in the dharma of the saint and sage-thc first step to the self-mastery by which the great yogis lift themselves out of the range of normal human action. They attain through it to such a state of power that when and if the saint steps again into the world, he is literally a superman. We have heard of this ideal also in the West; 17 but we have yet to see a whole continent attcmpt to
15 Arthasastra 1. 6.
16 "As regards Unrighteousness, it may be said that, even when of great proportions, it is incapable of so much as touching Righteousness, which is always protected by Time, and shines like a blazing fire" (Mahābhārata 18. 164. 7).
17 "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |