The Search After Reality: Thoughts on Hinduism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism and Christianity

Living in close contact with Hinduism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism and Christianity, I have studied their sacred books and the writings of their leading thinkers; while, from personal conversation with many of their learned followers, I have been able to extract much information regarding their faiths. The results of my thinking on these four great religions I have set down in this book.

It is not my intention to undertake a systematic and historical review of these religions, but I have sought to set before my readers in thoughts, clothed in simple words, a few of their fundamental principles in the*hope that thpse who are seekers after the Truth may be helped to know the Ideality.

I acknowledge with many thanks my indebtedness to the Rev. T. E. Riddle, of the New Zealand Presbyterian Mission, Kharar, Punjab, for the great help he has given in translating this book into its present form from my Urdu MSS.

Religion is a natural and universal demand on the part of human nature for the recognition of a supernatural power. Who can meet all the needs of those who are obedient and faithful in their duty to Him.

In other words, we may say that the aim? and object of religion is to obey the commands of Him Who is the Creator, Lord and Preserver of the Universe, to worship wholeheartedly, and to enjoy His fellowship Who is the Almighty, Eteftial jand Omnipresent God.

Thifipinfinite Source of Life, Who is the First Cause of visible and invisible things, is Reality.

1. In very ancient times people were like the savage and uneducated people of to-day. They did not realise their spiritual needs, or, if they felt them at all, they were not deeply conscious of them. They felt only their bodily wants, and they worshipped, instead of the Creator, His created things, such as the sun, moon, fire, air and water. With the exception of the Hebrews, there was no race in which there was a knowledge of the One True and Living God. Hence, for their bodily needs they worshipped, in the form of idols, those visible things from which they hoped for benefit, or which they dreaded as evil.

2. Later they made images of their gods, and brought offerings and sacrifices before them, and, when even this did not seem sufficient for them, they went a step-4irther and began to worship good and evil spirits, and the spirits of their ancestors. As their spiritual horizon widened, even this.failed to meet the calls of their growing spiritual natures, and they were forced to seek an<& worship a. spiritual Being Who,, in both worlds, would be able to satisfy all their bodily and spiritual needs and cravings. So God has revealed Himself to them according to their spiritual needs and capacities; “ God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son ” (Heb. i. 1-2).

3. Ancient people used simple and crude forms of stone, bronze or iron implements; but we do not now have to use weapons and implements of that kind, because in our day we have advanced far beyond the culture of their age. It is true that we still retain the senses from which their needs have sprung — hunger, thirst, for ‘instance, are still the same — but the means we use to satisfy those needs^Iave changed with the progress of time. In the same way, although from their historical and religious books we have come to kngw that their need was the same as ours, it does not mean that we have therefore 4 Rd adopt their method of idol worship.

The object of learning about ^ the habits of these people is that we may know what means they used, and to what extent they succeeded, when they found themselves engaged in the struggle between good and evil, and with sin and its evil results, in their effort to gain salvation.

In our own time, in a similar way, and to an even greater extent, people find themselves entangled in the difficulties of the struggle between evil and good, in the effort to Obtain salvation. Yet there is a progressive revelation of Reality that fits the need, capacity and state of development of every man and every age. This does not mean that there is any change in the Truth or Reality, even though it may appear in varied forms to persons differing in culture and in circumstances. New aspects may be revealed, but the Reality remains the same and unchangeable.

i. Followers of different religions, and people of different temperaments and capacities, believe that by the knowledge, faith and experience which they have, they can fully define and describe Reality; though often their experience is such as to limit even their dreams and visions. The differences, however, which exist among them are only on the surface. In the root idea of Reality which they seek to define there is no difference.

It is as if three men, one wearing red, one blue and one green glasses, are looking at a white flower. To each the flower appears to be of a different colour. All are agreed on the basic truth of the existence of the flower. Their whole argument is about the colour, and as soon as they take off their glasses the real colour of the flower is seen by them all. The beliefs and senses of men are like glasses through which they estimate and examine all existing things. But they cannot understand «£he Reality as they should, until their hearts have bee® enlightened hf God..For those, however, who are real seekers after truth, He who is the light of the world “ which lighteth every man coming into the world ” (John i. 9, viii. 12), will lead them on to Reality.

2. When we see a thing from a distance it appears small, and we do not perceive its real nature; but when we have come near to it, by degrees we come to know the thing as it really is. No change has taken place in the thing itself, but our experience and knowledge of it have increased. So, step by step we shall enter into the intimate fellowship of God’s immediate presence, and we shall increase in our^ spiritual knowledge and experience, until we arrive at the full recognition of Reality. “ For we shall see Him as He is” (1 John iii. 2; 1 Cor. xiii. 12).

3. The man who has not seen an apple- tree, but has seen only its tiny seed, ca» qever understand that the complete tree, wood, flowers and fruit, is all contained in it. if* the seed finds the conditions necessary to its growth, then at the appointed time its real nature will appear; and all its hidden possibilities will come into being, and reach to perfection. Thus the whole problem will be solved. So, leaving everything else out of consideration, man does not even know what qualities and abilities are hidden in him; but if he walks in fellowship with God, and according to His will, then he will continue to obtain all necessary aids for his growth, and will reach that state* of perfection for which God created him. Then all difficulties and problems will be solved.

“ And it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; foi*we shall see Him as He is ” (i John iii. 2).

4. Trees grow in unlimited space, yet there is a fixed limit beyond which they cannot extend. The force of gravity will not pertpk them to go one inch beyond their appointed bounds. In the same way, our wisdom, understanding and thoughts are limited tG the circumference of a very small circle beyond which it is not possible to reach.

In the future world the attractive power is love, and this, instead of hindering, gives every help and support for the growth of the soul towards perfection.

5. It frequently happens that some thinker, working quite independently of others, has arrived at the conclusions that they have already reached. The reason for this is, that the world is like an immense museum filled with a great variety of things. Each visitor that comes in sees the exhibits through the medium of his own experience, and, colouring them with his own feelings and fancies, tells others about them. $ach does it in his own way, but the conclusions are the same. On the other hand there are people with some small obliquity in their intellectual vision, and with a want of depth in their spiritual experience, who, in seeking to explain the

Reality, have coloured. their writings and speeches with their fancies, and have expressed diverse and distorted views. BtJt the Reality is the same.

i. Bodily senses and the perceptions of the soul, from their very nature, are nothing in themselves, but act only as interpreters between the soul and other things. As the sweetness of the sweets is not for the sweets themselves, so the perceptions of’ the senses are not for the senses themselves. Nor is man, as the materialist believes, a piece of automatic mechanism that runs by its own power. Because a piachine does not know that it is a machine, ahd because there is nothing in the brain and nervous system that of itself can produce thoughts and ideas,' therefore these work only as the instrument of man’s soul.

It „i& useless to.argue with the extreme mechanists, who declare man to be an autoftiaton, for no automaton could establish the theory that he was an automaton. * It is useless to argue with those who declare that thinking, feeling, willing and imagining are negligible bubbles on a stream of protoplasm, for no bubble can alter the direction of the current, as ideas can alter the flow of our life. “ Ideas have hands and feet,” as Hegel said.

2. If man’s intelligence and ability depend on the largeness of his brain, which gives him pre-eminence over other creatures, then what does the marvellous ability of the honeybee and the ant depend on, the size of whose brains may be considered as next to nothing?

If they say that this is all instinct, then how do the wonderful rpots of trees, in their search for nourishment, spread out in the 'direction of their food, and turn away from that which would injure them?

What is the instinct, or brain, which directs vines and creeper^ to twine their tendrils round other things and so to support themselves as they climb upwards?

Then what quality is there in magnetism'* that attracts, or repels, even insentient and inanimate things?

This then is the truth. That Creator Who has granted to insignificant creatures ability according to their need, has Himself made man in His own image and likeness, with understanding like Himself, and this can lead him back to the Creator of the Two Worlds, and into harmony with Him.

3. We know much more than we can ever put into words, because we can never explain the whole of our inner consciousness.* Something is always left unexpressed. We have experiences which are beyond our powers of expression, but are not beyond our comprehension.

At times we have an intuition, and lofty thoughts suddenly flash into our minds. These we have not learned from any one, because no one can explain them; nor have we been able to ’gain knowledge of them in tjae- visible world through our senses. Hence the question arises, How have we t>een able to come to know these hidden things?

I would say that the proof of this is that our souls are connected with the spiritual and unseen world whose light, without our being aware of it, is reflected in our inner selves. By means of our inner perceptions some truths from that other world come to us, but their proof will be possible by experience only when we enter into that world, which we now see as in a glass darkly.

4. Ants and bees, within the limits of their little worlds, are a wise and hardworking folk; but, outside the circle of their lives, they see higher creatures and men whose existence and nature they can measure only in terms of theif own little lives. So in the spiritual ^orld we come in contact with the highest spiritual beings, about whom our knowledge is as small as the ants’ knowledge of us. On the other hand, though man is so much superior* to the ant, yet he has no complete knowledge of what that insignificant little creature is. In the same way, the knowledge that higher spiritual beings have of us is imperfect, fie alone Who created all things has perfect and complete knowledge of every creature.