Page:Works of Tagore from the Modern Review, 1909-24 Segment 1.pdf/68

Rh sambhava, that the Beauty that goes hand in hand with Moral Law is eternal, that the calm, controlled and beneficent form of Love is its best form, that Beauty is truly charming under restraint and decays quickly when it gets wild and unfettered. This ancient poet of India refuses to recognise Love as its own highest glory; he proclaims that Goodness is the final goal of Love. He teaches us that the love of man and woman is not beautiful, not lasting, not fruitful,—so long as it is self-centred, so long as it does not beget Goodness, so long as it does not diffuse itself in society over son and daughter, guests and neighbours.

The two peculiar principles of India are the beneficent tie of home life on the one hand, and the liberty of the soul abstracted from the world on the other. In the world India is variously connected with many races and many creeds; she cannot reject any of them. But on the altar of devotion (tapasyá) India sits alone. Kalidas has shown, both in Sakuntala and Kumarasambhava, that there is a harmony between these two principles, an easy transition from the one to the other. In his hermitage human boys play with lion cubs, and the hermit-spirit is reconciled with the spirit of the householder.

On the foundation of the hermitage of recluses Kalidas has built the home of the householder. He has rescued the relation of the sexes from the sway of lust and enthroned it on the holy and pure seat of asceticism. In the sacred books of the Hindus the ordered relation of the sexes has been defined by strict injunctions and Laws. Kalidas has demonstrated that relation by means of the elements of Beauty. The Beauty that he adores is lit up by grace, modesty, and goodness; in its intensity it is true to one for ever; in its range it embraces the whole universe. It is fulfilled by renunciation, gratified by sorrow, and rendered eternal by religion. In the midst of this Beauty, the impetuous unruly love of man and woman has restrained itself and attained to a profound peace, like a wild torrent merged in the ocean of Goodness. Therefore is such Love higher and more wonderful than wild and unrestrained Passion.

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N May 1911, happens the 2500th anniversary of the enlightenment of Gautama Buddha, perhaps the greatest historical figure in human history, and undoubtedly the greatest and the noblest son of India of the historical period. On the full-moon day of Asarha (July), the Gentle Master preached His first sermon in the Deer Park near Benares, and in October, He sent His first disciples to preach the Law of the Dharma. There can be no greater occasion for India to begin to pay her long neglected homage to the memory of her most adorable Teacher, by a great national festival and pilgrimage to either Budh-Gya or Sarnath. It seems inexplicable as to why India with her genius for hero-worship allowed one of her ideal heroes to drop altogether from national recognition. To say, that Buddha is regarded by Hindu India as one of the ten avatars of Vishnu, is to utter only a half-truth. Among all the literary references of Buddha's avatarhood in Sanskrit literature, that of [[Author:Jayadeva|Jayadeva}} in his immortal lyrics only seems to show a national as well as a historical sense. To Hindu India, whether to the orthodox or the common people, the name of Buddha is little known and less does He inspire any of them to nobler thoughts or actions. Even in Budh-Gya, where millions of Hindu pilgrims go to perform rites in memory of their departed ancestors under the Akshaya Bat, and incidentally with their characteristic devotion offer a few flowers and a prayer at the feet of the Blessed One, never do they realize the greatness of the occasion or ever suspect that He is the real object of the pilgrimage continued from the old old days, but now diverted! Yet during the