Page 337 - Complete Works of Dr. KCV Volume 1

directed towards an attack on the vedanta which counselled renunciation of life and its values. Undoubtedly there has been a strong movement which sought to defend vedanta and the way of renunciation. We have, therefore, had quite a number of institutions, philosophical treatises, eloquent and powerful speeches trying to defend an absolutely unconvincing Vedantic way of life. I mean that vedanta which tried to promulgate that doctrine of world-illusion, and sought to attain moksha or freedom by the renunciation of all world values.
Now if this was the condition, and we found ourselves defeated politically, and defeated morally in our lives by the promulgation of these doctrines of the vedanta of the particular brand which I mentioned, it became clear to many of us that we want a world-affirming philosophy rather than a world- denying one. And we wanted a philosophy which will connect us with God in the aspect of his creative joy rather than his uncreative misery and illusions. Now if we study the tendencies in the several movements, on the one side we have Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Tagore, Sri Aurobindo where you will find the world affirmation more important, rather than the world-denying Ramakrishna-Vivekananda school on the other.
Today in a world where our world-values have to be sublimated and divinised, it becomes clear to us that we must try a way, which will put us into direct contact with the ultimate Reality. I can mention, in this context, the studied efforts of many of these reformers, whether of the rightist or the leftist variety, the illusionist and world-denying philosophy, or the realistic world-affirming philosophy-the fact that they thought that man was more important, and that the service of mankind is higher than the service and knowing of God. Well, we know what this can lead to. We have many people who think that it is enough if you serve mankind in order to attain the Divine. The specious reason is that once you try to see God in every human being it would be enough to cultivate the habit of seeing God in everybody, and serve the God in everybody. Theoretically it sounds well enough. Practically, you do not know what service you can offer to the soul of each individual. I do not know what justification there can be for the type of service we are trying to render to mankind; and whether these several schools or systems, or these eloquent versions of the vedanta have uplifted man to a higher degree of consciousness and concentration of universal