Bhagvad Gita Rahasya or Karmayoga Shastra VOL 02

SR No.: 011090
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhalchandra S Sukhtankar
Publisher: R B Tilak Puna
Publication Year: 1936
Total Pages: 767
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 74 MB

Page 138

708
GĪTĀ-RAHASYA OR KARMA-YOGA
human beings be satisfied by that which is only perceptible ? Even the class-denoting words, 'tree', 'man', etc., carry an imperceptible idea. It is true that a mango-tree or a rose-tree are specific objects which are visible; but the common noun
tree' does not specify any visible or perceptible object; and all our activities are of the same nature. From this it follows, that in order that the idea of the Imperceptible should come into the mind, it is necessary to have some percetible object before the eyes. But, it is equally true that the Percetible is not the final stage, and that we cannot take a single step forward or complete even a single sentence without the support of the Impercetible. Therefore, if one abandons the imperceptible idea of the Parabrahman in the shape of the Identity of the Ātman in all created beings, which is taken as a foundation for Ethics from the point of view of Metaphysics, it still becomes necessary to worship as a God, "the whole of mankind," which is a non-visible, that is, an imperceptible thing; and even ninety-nine per cent Materialistic philosophers have now begun to earnestly preach that we should include in mankind all the past and future generations, in order to satisfy the natural desire of human beings for immortality; and that worshipping wholly, solely, and lovingly this magnified God, or spending one's whole life in the service of it (mankind), or sacrificing one's selfish interests for it, is the highest duty of every body in this world. This is the summary of the doctrines preached by the French philosopher Comte, and this religion has been given by him the pretty name of "Religion of the entire mankind" or shortly "Religion of Humanity". * The same is the case with the modern German philosopher Nietzsche. This philosopher has, in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, definitely proclaimed that "God is dead"; and he says that Metaphysics is all bosh. Nevertheless, after admitting the doctrines of Causality and of Re-incarnation from the Materialistic point of view, he has admitted in all his books,
* Comte has named his doctrine the “Religion of Humanity"; and the whole of it has been expounded in his work A System of Positive Polity (Eng. trans, in four volumes). This book contains a very clever discussion of the question how society can be established and maintained even from the purely Materialistic point of view.