THE ANTINOMY OF JOY AND SORROW.
[To TER EDITOR 0/ TES " SPRCTATOR."] SIR,—It happens that this has been a period of great catastrophes in Europe, America, and Asia alike, and many pious souls must have been perplexed by the seemingly purposeless calamities that have befallen human societies. At a time when Hindu speculation is regarded with a new deference, it may interest your readers to see what a kindly
and pious Hindu writes on the subject of the puzzling antinomy of pain and pleasure. I quote from a private
correspondence, in which the Hindu friend who addresses me does not pick his words, but writes frankly and freely. Most people who are interested in Hindu theology know that Siva, the "god of destruction," is in fact the personification of the destructive and recreative forces of Nature. He is regarded as rejoicing playfully in catastrophe, since only thus can occasion arise for the creation of fresh beauty and happiness. This divine " play " or /ad is a feature of Hindu speculation which Europeans, with their strict notions of justice, find ii difficult to grasp. My friend writes :— "The freaks of Nature are called the Lila of God by the worshippers of Vishnu. The care with which Nature preserves every tiny new-born thing and then ruthlessly destroys her own creation, this has always puzzled the human mind. The same Nature which provides milk for the babe inflicts death and disease on innocent creatures. Is not Nature like Lady Macbeth, prepared to dash out the brains of her own offspring, nourished from her own breast ? On the one hand we have miraculous rule and order, and of a sudden the whole blotted out in chaos and dismay ! What wonder, then, that to us Nature's Lord is the god Siva who rejoices alike in creation and destruction ? I once knew a lunatic who could draw admirable pictures with chalk. He laughed joyously as he drew, and then he laughed again as he rubbed his pictures out to make room for fresh exercises of hie skill. Is not this a symbol of Nature's dealings with life on earth? Does not this give you a clue to our conception of Siva, at ones destroyer and re-creator ? "
This visualizing and anthropomorphizing of the antinomy of pain and pleasure will hardly strike the Western mind as an explanation. It is, after all, only a picturesque representa- tion of the fact that joy and sorrow befall us in ways beyond our foretelling and comprehension. That the Hindu mind has a vivid literary power of presentation is clear. There is a keen sense of the humour and pathos of human life. But whether with this artistic faculty goes a really profound philosophic sense is more doubtful. Our professors of philo- sophy seem to find Hindu pupils more apt to grasp the beauties of philosophic literature than to think out problems for themselves. Perhaps this is the weak point of the
mysticism which has found such remarkable literary expression in the poems of Mr. Tagore. As literature his work is admirable.
But emotional mysticism has its defects as a scientific explana- tion of the facts of life, and the Lila myth is, at best, an attribution of human freakishness and caprice to the Power who must needs remain inscrutable to human intelligence.—I
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