Page 101 - Hinduism

spiritual nature in each individual. It appeals to the godhead concealed in the heart of every creature. It teaches the Life Divine, which is the dwelling in God and for God in His world. This is the goal of Hinduism. This promises for each individual the triple aims of the spiritual life, a life of liberty, a life of righteousness or law, and a life of love for all creation that verily belongs to God.
Hinduism is a supreme socialising and divinising force. It is not anti-social or unsocial like some religions. It has meaning for man here in this world. It treats the world as a great field of God's play in which all individuals must take part and act with understanding according to rules or dharma prescribed in the play to each part.
The Hindu religion has carefully analysed the structure of society, its divisions of functions and periods of maturation, growth, development, and ripening of each individual. In other words, its division of castes depends upon the functions and its division of āśramas depends upon the stages of man in a society. It is true that these are given a fuller and profounder significance in some cases, though it is a fact that these divisions cannot be treated to be water-tight compartments. Pure types and pure functions are difficult to find in any society. The individual in religion discovers a new set of values for the terms liberty, law and love, (mokṣa,
dharma and kāma), meanings which are impossible 101