Basic HTML Version
www.thea rya sa maj.org
18 Works of Pandit Guru Datta Vidyarthi
and perverted judgment inherited from the first Adam, and draw re-
creative force — renovated wills, fresh springs of wisdom,
righteousness, and knowledge — from the ever-living divine stem of
the second, Adam, to which, by a simple act of faith, we are united.
In this manner is the grand object of Christianity effected. Other
religions have their doctrines and precepts of morality, which, if
carefully detached from much that is bad and worthless, may even
vie with those of Christianity. But Christianity has, besides all these,
what other religions have not — a personal God, ever living to supply
the free grace or regenerating spirit by which human nature is re-
created and again made God-like, and through which man, becoming
once again 'pure in heart,' and still preserving his own will, self-
consciousness and personality, is fitted to have access to God the
Father, and dwell in His presence for ever."*
Again, speaking of Brahmanism, he says —
"As to Brahmanism, we must, in fairness, allow that,
according to its more fully developed system, the aim of union with
God is held to be effected by faith in an apparently personal God,
as well as by works and by knowledge. And here some of the lines
of the Brahmanical thought seem to intersect those of Christianity.
But the apparent personality of the various Hindu gods melts away,
on closer scrutiny, into a vague spiritual essence. It is true that
God becomes man and interposes for the good of men, causing a
seeming combination of the human and divine—and an apparent
interchange of action and even loving sympathy between the
Creator and His creatures. But can there be any real interaction or
co-operation between divine and human personalities when all
personal manifestations of the Supreme Being — gods as well as
men — ultimately merge in the Oneness of the Infinite, and nothing
remains permanently distinct from Him? It must be admitted that
most remarkable language is used of Krishna (Vishnu), a supposed
form of the Supreme, as the source of all life and energy (see pp.
144-148
and
see also pp. 456, 457); but if identified with the One
God he can only, according to the Hindu theory, be the source of
life in the sense of giving out life to reabsorb it into himself. If, on the
other hand, he is held to be only an incarnation or manifestation of
the Supreme Being in human form, then, by a cardinal dogma of
* Monier Williams, Indian Wisdom, Introduction, pp. XL-XLi