Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/243
Yājnavalkya's brilliant exposition of theosophy by repeated gifts of a thousand cows – we may wonder who counted them, and what Yājnavalkya did with them – King Ajātaçatru of Benares, real intellectual as he is, will not allow admiring Brahmans to starve.
I think that a saying of the modern sage and pious ascetic, the Paramahansa Rāmakrishna,[1] throws essentially the right light upon the exceptional character of the theosophic exploits of kings: "Men always quote the example of the King Janaka, as that of a man who lived in the world and yet attained perfection. But throughout the whole history of mankind there is only this solitary example. His case was not the rule but the exception." We may tone down this statement, and apply it to the present question as follows: Not all Brahmans were intellectually or morally sound, but some Brahmans were at all times, as they were in the days of Çankara and Kumārila, the intellectual leaders of India; brilliant helpers from the other castes, more especially the Royal caste,[2] lent occasional aid, and this aid justly compelled acknowledgment and admiration.
I am now come at last to the "how" of Hindu higher thought, that is, my task is now to show how the main or essential thoughts of Hindu theosophy