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In Brahmanic India there is no word for religion because everything is religious. Hinduism is the customary way of life of the Hindus made sacrosanct. Art, technology, law, science, and learning are inseparable from religion; and from this point of view, Indian culture is primitive. According to the Abbe Dubious:
During the many years that I have studied Hindu customs I cannot say that I ever observed a single one, however unimportant and simple, and I may add, however filthy and disgusting, which did not rest on some religious principle or other. Nothing is left to chance; everything is laid down by rule, and the foundation of all their customs is purely and simply religion. It is for this reason that the Hindus hold all their customs and usages to be inviolable, for, being essentially religious, they consider them as sacred as religion itself.
The caste system constitutes the structure of Hinduism. Each caste has its own God-given dharma, its religious way of life and natural priesthood. Indeed, we may think of caste dharma as Hinduism in microcosm. An individual or group may become a Hindu by adopting the customary behavior of the Hindus rather than by being converted. In fact, it is practically impossible for an individual to become “a Hindu,” for Hinduism does not recognize individuals; it is preoccupied with customs, not with habits.
The individual, entering the system as a member of a group, may take up his position as a member of a new caste. He becomes Hindu when his caste comes to realize its particular cultural variation as God-given and sacred. Hinduism becomes conscious of itself not as a cultural homogeneity, but rather in interaction among an unlimited number of dharmaic groups. Thus, a person becomes Hindu when he sees himself as a member of an in-group with a magico-religious way of life and all other groups about him as inherently different from his own—in other words, when his beliefs are determined by caste principles.
Of course a mere verbal denial of caste may not mean that an East Indian is no longer Hindu, any more than a westerner in India who advocates the caste system becomes a Hindu. Moreover, the outcasting of hereditary Hindu does not of itself make him non-Hindu; Hinduism has made status provisions for outcastes. The very act of treating the outcaste as a despised non-entity is a factor determining caste solidarity, the sine qua non of Hinduism.
The power of Hinduism to absorb peripheral groups lies paradoxically in its self-centered disregard of them. It cares little, if at all, about the belief of an out-group or even about its culture; but the group which seeks a position of consequence in the caste hierarchy must carefully respect the opinion of Brahmans or suffer the slights, ridicule, and, finally, the boycott of reputable castes. In this very power of repulsion lies the attractional force of Hinduism; in other words, the ability of the organized individuals to ignore, to cut alien groups dead as of no consequence, tends to set up a desire in the latter to assume those practices which compel recognition.
The religion in its upper reaches is magical and introspective, and it is not available to mankind as such. Brahmans have a vested interest in it, and its blessings cannot reach men of low status. It has no creed, no central power, no church; and its multiplicity of practically individuated temples is built about community priests.
Mysticism, an Indispensable Factor
Through mediation and self-induced projection of personality and soul, the Hindu seeks integration with the universal soul substance. The attainment of this is his highest possible achievement; it involves a method, the knowledge of which need not include respect for ethical principles.
The Hindu “studies the Universe to discover whether he can apprehend and become one with the mysterious will which governs it. Only in spiritual unity with Infinite Being can he give meaning to his life and find strength to suffer and to act.” Thus in isolation, oblivious of men and the world, the individual attempts to move directly toward final salvation and bliss. Of the Brahmans, Schweitzer says: “Their whole endeavor was directed to piercing deeper into the secret of the supra-sensuous to which they drew near as priest by means of the incantations of sacrifice, and with which they became one in the state of ecstasy.”
Mysticism is particularly adapted to Brahmanic culture. The final reabsorption of man into the super-soul is achieved by a “pure act of the spirits,” and the question of a man’s regard for his fellow men is of no particular significance. This is consistent with the functional aspects of the caste system. “The mystic,” observes Nehru, “tries to rid himself of self, and in the process usually becomes obsessed with it.”
The doctrine of karma maintains that every action of an individual has a moral significance; that all bad behavior is laid to his account; that after death his behavior account is balanced and judgment pronounced. The individual reaps his reward either in spiritual well- or ill-being, in favorable or unfavorable rebirth, or in both spiritual and rebirth recompense. The highest spiritual achievement of a man is that of reaching the abode of gods, thus ending the cycle of rebirths; the depths of misfortune are reached by those individuals whose souls re-enter the world as living insects, vermin, or even inanimate objects.
Although they did not always corroborate each other, the authors of the sacred scriptures had a detailed knowledge of the processes of trans-migration. Consider, for instance, Manu’s eschatology:
In consequences of many sinful acts committed with his body, a man becomes in the next birth something inanimate; in consequence of sins committed by speech, a bird or a beast; and in consequence of mental sins, he is reborn in a low caste… Those endowed with goodness reach the state of god, those endowed with activity the state of men, and those endowed with darkness even sink to the condition of beasts; that is the threefold course of transmigration…. Elephants, horses, Sudras, and despicable barbarians, lions, tigers, and boars are the middling states, caused by the quality of darkness.
Therefore, to the question, “What might a man do to be saved from an inferior rebirth?” the Indian answer is: “Follow in minutest detail your caste dharma.” The sacred literature has repeatedly emphasized to caste-men, especially low-caste men, that respect for caste duties is a man’s primary obligations. A Sudra’s hope of rebirth into a higher caste lies in his being a perfect Sudra in this life. The doctrine, then, is ideally pessimistic and other-worldly. It is fatalistic and provides the philosophical basis for caste complacency.
Brahmanic India has not yet reached its age of rationalism. Everything of importance concerning human life and welfare has already been said by the ancient sages; the sole employment of the reason now is interpretation and rumination upon this store of sacred wisdom. The latter answers all their questions; Hindus need only to search carefully enough to find them all revealed. With reference to this Dr.Pinkham observes: “It must be recognized that the acts of many Hindus are the result of blind adherence to the unquestioned authority of the sacred scriptures, rather than of a testing of traditional doctrine by conscience, practical observation, and experimentation.”
There is no secular law, hence there can be no reasoning about social problems as such. In fact, in Brahmanic India there is no such phenomenon as “the social” as distinct from “the religious.” So far as political thinking is concerned, the Hindu is incorrigibly aristocratic. We could not conceive of his originating the democratic idea, and he could not adopt it except at the expense of a revolution in the social order.
In India the theory of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” could have universal meaning only as a weapon against the foreigners who invented it. Even the depressed classes could not conceive of themselves as aspiring to this state, for the disorganization of the social structure and its religious rationale must at least go hand in hand with the grasping of this idea by the masses. Furthermore, the caste system insists on loyalty to the caste rather than to the nation or as a whole.
