Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

INTRODUCTORY

that the world is an Order, of which each man, being, and thing, is a part, and to which each man stands in a definite, established relation; together with action based on, and consistent with, such recognition, and in harmony with the whole cosmic activity. Whilst therefore the religious man is he who feels that he is bownd in varying ways to all being, the irreligious man is he who egoistically considers everything from the standpoint of his limited self and its interests, without regard for his fellows, or the world at large. The essentially irreligious character of such an attitude is shown by the fact that, if it were adopted by all, it would lead to the negation of Cosmos that is Chaos. Therefore all religions are agreed in the essentials of morality and hold that selfishness, in its widest sense, is the root of all sin and crime (Adharma). Morality is thus the true nature of man. The general Dharma (Samanya Dharma) is the universal law governing all, just as the particular Dharma (Vishesha Dharma) varies with, and is peculiar to, each class of being. It follows from what is above stated that disharmony is suffering. This is an obvious fact. Wrong conduct is productive of ill, as right conduct is productive of good. As a man sows, so he will reap. There is an Immanent Justice. But these results, though they may appear at once, do not always doso. The fruit of no action is lost. It must, according to the law of causality, which is a law of reason, bear effect. If its author does not suffer for it here and now in the present life, he will do so in some future one. Birth and death mean the creation and destruction of bodies. The spirits so embodied are infinite in number and eternal. The material universe comes and goes, This in Brahmanism has been said (see Sanatana Vaidika Dharma by Bhagavan Das) to be “the Systole and Diastole of the one Universal Heart, Itself at rest—the moveless play of Consciousness.” All would say that the appearance and disappearance of the universe is the nature of That which 3