"There is no doubt that the tortures of apprehension, which these blatant professors of atheism feel in their last moments, far exceed those which assail believers, and it is clear that the only solace available for a mind frenzied at the approach of death is faith in God. Hence it is surely a monstrous thing to attack with arguments, which are enveloped in doubt, this time-honored faith and seek to establish the creed that there is no God. Our duty plainly is to dispel, as far as we can, the fears which surround a dying man, and if, when he is conscious that the hour for shuffling off this mortal coil is inevitably near, all that can be said to him is ‘Come, die and be quick about it; you have nothing left to hope for now; your life is snuffed out like the flame of a candle; you must leave your body, your children, your wife, your mother, your brethren, your wealth, your happiness, your all, and pass away into nothingness; it is all over with you,’ consider how terrible his feelings must be while life still lingers. But think on the other hand of his joy if he is led to believe that there is even the possibility of a future for his soul, and we must conclude that it is good for man to believe that there is a God.
"On these grounds, therefore, I say that the attempts made to establish the atheistic creed are abominable, and I will now give you the reasons for my own faith. Belief in God does not necessarily emanate from any cause, and may exist without a cause. Possibly a man who has read and studied and thought as much as Govindan Kutti has, may ask how such belief can arise, and my answer is this. Although the essential nature of things in this universe is hidden from man’s faculties of perception, yet it is abundantly manifest, from countless instances, that there must be an ineffable power that sustains the universe and this power I call God. In my opinion, all the prosperity and adversity which we see around us are necessary for the proper government of the world, and were intended for this purpose by our Creator. I do not state this as a fact, but my impression is that this is the case. Everything in the world is subject to decay, and were it otherwise, it is doubtful if the world would last for any length of time; because it is clear that, if the host of creatures which have lived in the last fifty thousand years had gone on increasing, without decay, at the present rate, the world would not have been sufficient for their comfort and maintenance. We cannot find anywhere a man who was alive a hundred and fifty years ago, and all the men and women who then lived and multiplied have perished. Then think of the ages which have passed over the world, and of the millions who have lived and died in those ages-they are countless; and if their increase had not been counteracted, to some extent at least, by death, it is obvious that the world could not have remained as it is. Hence I say that change and decay were ordained by our Creator, and that otherwise the whole world would be destroyed. This is the view taken by all men of learning in the present day, but with all that, can you find anyone who is not afraid of death? Who is there that does not start and shrink when he hears that his life on earth is to end as from an idea too impossible? Here we find men drawn irresistibly to the world and delighted with the things therein, through the influence of a mighty and ineffable Power. Time after time all earthly pleasures, marred by sorrow or misfortune, are found to be worthless. We acknowledge this fact day by day, and sometimes we ponder deeply over these matters, but, do what we will, in the end we still cling to the world. These conditions of life are, in my opinion, due to a mighty sustaining Power whose qualities we cannot know accurately, and I believe this Power is God. The whole creation may be beset by dangers, whole tracts of country may be parched by drought, thunderbolts may fall, kingdoms may be swallowed up by the sea, earthquakes may shake the world, wars may rage and millions of the earth’s inhabitants may pass to destruction, but if after all we reckon up the sum total, we shall find that the world’s throng was greater five, than ten centuries ago, a hundred than two hundred years ago, twenty-five than fifty years ago; that it is greater this year than it was last, and today than yesterday. If you ask the reason, the reply is that there is a special force which maintains the world against decay and enables it to continue its course despite the perils and dangers to which it is exposed, and I say that this force is God. On the other hand, while the atheists say the world was created through the spontaneously active combinations of matter and continues to exist without dependence on an individual and conscious Power, still there is no reason why mutual attraction and dependence should always continue between the forms of vegetable and animal life which the world contains and which emanated from kindred modifications of irrational matter, and they cannot continue. I contend that the sun was made by God, and the atheist, that it is a ball formed by the conglomeration of atoms possessing spontaneous activity. But the atheist cannot tell me how it is that the sun is full of compassion for the earth and so regulates its course that the fierceness of its fire shall not consume the world to ashes: The generally received opinion is that the sun is a creation of God, and is an attempt to falsify this opinion right? What harm does that opinion do to men? When they see the wondrous glory of the sun they are led to infer the existence of a still greater power, and the atheists are unable to suggest any other inference calculated to convince the mind. Why then should we adopt this creed? We can learn from books on science something concerning the globular shape of the sun and its stores of heat and power of attraction, but science does not tell us why such an orb, which succours the world and all its inhabitants, was created at all, or when it was created, or why it continues to make the earth prosper. Preach the doctrine of evolution of matter as much as you please, but you must finally come to the point where there is no substance with which evolution can originate. If, then, there must be an ultimate material essence, is it not reasonable to believe that that essence is God? Surely, instead of supposing that heat and cold, rain and wind, that all the irrational elements of nature work together for the comfort and welfare of mankind spontaneously, it were better to believe that they are guided and controlled by a mighty Power who is the essence of all reason and wisdom.
"A cow is generally a stupid animal, with no object in life beyond that of eating its fill, but consider its behaviour as soon as it bring forth a calf. Think how wonderful is the affection it displays, how strenuous are the efforts it makes for the protection of its offspring! The atheists are ready to explain away this circumstance, but I do not see that any weight can be attached to their statements. How is it possible to refute the arguments in favor of the constitution of the world by a mighty Power, when we see the lower animals imitating, in the preservation of their species, human beings who are endowed with reason? Although I do not know what the essential attributes of that Power may be, of the existence of that Power I am nevertheless certain, and my inference is that it is God.
"Govindan Kutti has said much concerning the misery that prevails in the world, but think of the pleasures. On the one hand, lands are, one year or another, scorched and thirst for water, but, on the other, these form but a small portion of the earth. Compare the evils which actually come upon the world with those to which it is liable. Cholera breaks out in various regions and destroys the people, but when it attacks a place with ten thousand inhabitants, consider the proportion which its victims bear to the rest. With all its deadliness and all its infection, the disease has never exterminated utterly the young and old alike, in India or other countries with their teeming millions. How then is it that the apparently natural result does not follow, and that kingdoms are not depopulated? What is the number of ships wrecked in their course every year? What is the number of shipwrecked men who gnaw the throats of their dearest friends and satisfy their thirst with blood? If we consider these things minutely, it will be seen that we cannot expect blessings which we possess to be without alloy, and that, notwithstanding occasional reverses of fortune, there is, on the whole, no source of happiness for mankind equal to our sojourn in this world.
"I have but little more to say. Alike in the proudest Emperor, who lives at ease in his lofty palace and is surrounded with every lux
ury that heart can desire, and in the poverty-stricken labourer, who toils for his daily pittance, subsists from hand to mouth, and has no shelter but the meanest hovel, we see the same love of life predominant, and alike to both, at whatever age, is the name of death horrible. The same glorious beams of the rising sun which strike through the venetians of a palace and, shedding a gold and crimson lustre over royal robes, greet the eyes of a king as he wakes from slumber, illuminate with their radiance the plantain leaves around a humble peasant’s hut and bring joy and gladness to every living creature. The beggar, who fills his belly with cold rice and water, feels the same satiety as the monarch who, in the midst of all that can charm the senses, dines off the daintiest fare served on golden plates, and the beggar’s sleep on a bamboo-mat, spread on the bare ground, is as refreshing as the monarch’s repose on an embroidered bed of down. Hence if we consider the wonderful skill displayed in the dispensation of happiness to all sorts and conditions of living creatures, it is useless to contend that a mighty Power is not the primordial cause for the maintenance and preservation of the world. There is no doubt, as Govindan Kutti says, that calamities do occasionally befall the world, but if we balance the account of joys and sorrows, we shall find that the former greatly exceed the latter. I maintain that the reason for this is undoubtedly the existence of a mighty Power beyond our comprehension, and I say that that Power is God whom we must reverence."
"Well, I think we have had enough of the subject," said Govinda Panikkar. "We don’t know enough about it to carry on a philosophical argument, and it seems to me that I was wrong in speaking to you on the subject and provoking this discussion."
"This is what you think, is it, brother, of all we have said ?" asked Govindan Kutti Menon.
"And what have you said?" returned Govinda Panikkar. "You two have been talking a lot of nonsense. What do you know about religious belief? But I was a fool to talk with you as I did, and the end of it all is that you have lost all faith in religion and spiritual instructors. Madhavan believes there is a God, but if we examine the nature and form of his belief, it does not seem to me that he has much more reverence and faith and fear than the atheist Govindan Kutti. But now let us lie down here and go to sleep."
All three thereupon lay down on the terraced roof intending to sleep, and Madhavan, although he longed to hear about Indulekha, was ashamed to question either his father or Govindan Kutti Menon. Govinda Panikkar, however, volunteered news about Indulekha’s grief and the episode of the Nambudiripad, and after they had talked for some time, Govindan Kutti Menon suddenly asked Madhavan if his friends, the Babus, were going to attend the next meeting of the Congress.
"It seems," he said, "that Babu Govind Sen and Chitraprasadh Sen and others like them are doing their best to make the Congress a success."
"Did they ask you to do anything in particular in the matter, Madhavan"
"No," replied Madhavan, "they didn’t ask me to do anything at all. Babu Govind Sen is friendly to the Congress, and there was a meeting at his house while I was staying there and I spoke at it."
"I have heard," said Govinda Panikkar, "of a council which is held every year to show that while the English rule does us a lot of good in many ways, still there are faults in it which ought to be remedied. Is that what Govindan Kutti means ?"
"Yes," answered Madhavan.
"Yes, that is it, exactly" said Govindan Kutty Menon. "I think these Congress meetings now are no use at all to India. They are worthless and nothing but pompous bombast. "
"That’s a pretty sweeping assertion, Govindan Kutty," returned Madhavan. "Your fancy seems to take extraordinary flights. But surely it would be only fair to let my father understand what the Congress is, and what. its objects are, before you give your opinion as to what good it does. Now tell us the nature and intention of the Congress."
"By all means," replied Govindan Kutti Menon. "Listen, brother. A Congress Meeting is a meeting called together without the slightest authority by some rich Hindus and Mahomedans who want to transform the government in India into the same kind of government they have in England, who go in extensively far mutual adulatian, who put on the grandest airs, throw themselves into violent heroics, all for nothing, and waste a great deal of time. As a matter af fact, there is no point of comparison between us inhabitants of India and the English people, and if the object is to bring about an equality, this could be done in many other ways with great ease and advantage. But without trying any of them, they strive most unnecessarily to accomplish all at once the supreme and most difficult feat of all. It was not through the help of a Congress such as this that the English obtained the liberties which they now enjoy. It seems to me as clear as daylight that the utterances af the native stump orators, couched in grand eloquent English, are simply twaddle. If they really have the honour of their race and the love of independence at heart, why, to begin with, do they submit to live under a foreign power? Let them take arms and drive the English out, let the Babus rule the country! Supposing the Germans now conquered England, would the English form a Congress and cringe to the Germans for each act af grace to their country ? Not so, I take it; they would fight and try do drive the Germans out defeated, and would never rest until they had succeeded. If there is really any national self-respect, this is what should be done, but is servility enabled by an affectation of self-respect? As long as the English have the wealth, and the power, and the might, and the sovereignty, what is the use of our whinings and lamentations? The English have subdued both Hindus and Mahomedans alike, and why under these conditions should we play out this monstrous farce? We have no riches, no courage, no strength of body, no union amongst ourselves; we cannot be depended on, we are illiberal, we have no power of combination no learning, no knowledge, no energy, and, for such a people as we are, is a Parliament the first necessity? Even for the English, with all their unity of castes and fusion of race, Parliamentary Government is a matter of difficulty, and how preposterous then is the idea entertained by some bawling Babus, Brahmins and Mudalis of forming, out of the inhabitants of India, who are divided by ten thousand differences of caste into sections as antagonistic to each other as a mongoose is to a snake, an assembly like Parliament for the administration of the country? The project is sheer folly, nothing else. It is simply their fear of being knocked over by bullets and their weakness that has made the various races between the Himalayas and Cape Comorin live at peace with one another since the advent of the English, but let the English leave India tomorrow, and then we shall see the greatness and valour of the Babus. Will these open-mouthed demagogues be able to protect the country for a single minute? Why, if they really possessed that fine feeling of self-esteem which they profess, they would long ago have obtained the privileges they so earnestly desire. But in truth they possess neither courage, nor strength, nor energy, nor patience. Clamour is almost everything with them. Their sole object, their one set ambition is to make fine speeches in English. If the English Government, working on its present lines, gradually introduces changes and reforms into India for the next generation, this is all that is required. There are thousands of customs and institutions in India which are wholly imperfect or disgraceful, and should be developed and improved. Why should the supporters of the Congress neglect them utterly and go beyond all bounds in grasping first of all at sovereignty? Why for instance do they make no attempt to remove the obstacles to improvement and progress which are interposed by so many unnecessary distinctions of caste? Why do they not, in order to relieve the poverty of the land, try to teach its races ways of trade with foreign countries, better modes of agriculture, manufacture, mechanical engineering? Why not endeavour to spread education among women? Why not seek to reform our obscure household customs and barbarous practices? It is now many years since the railway and telegraph and other wonderful inventions were introduced into India, and why should no efforts be made to instruct Hindus and Mahomedans how to construct them and work them? In all the great European countries, the natives t
here learn these things, but we, if we want a good iron wheel, or even a good needle, have to send to England for it. If anything really good is wanted, from a pin to a warship, it has to come from England, and is not this a disgrace to the natives of this country? Our first object should be to place India on something like an equality with England in these respects, and it will be time enough to think of popular assemblies and self-government and enfranchisement when we have removed from India the reproach of her manifest faults and failings and ignorance. No one can possibly respect the men. a mere handful after all-who neglect all such reforms and bellow for the reins of government before everything. Despising everything else as they do, who will lend a finger to help them when they cry out under the one burden they have laid on themselves. To my thinking, this Congress is altogether contemptible. I feel thoroughly ashamed when I read the speeches delivered by Sir Lepel, Griffin and others on the natives of India. A great deal of what they say is only too true, and there are many things in our economy which are a standing disgrace. Is it then possible to smother all consciousness of these and put India on an equality with England by crying aloud for the right of self-government and nothing else? What I say is that this Congress means vain agitation and waste of money."
"I think you are quite right, Govindan Kutti, and in this matter I agree with you," said Govinda Panikkar. "The Government under which we now live is far better than the old one, and we want nothing more. But I think what you said about destroying caste distinctions is all nonsense, and I must differ from you there."
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