Moral life -4

 

Bhakti and ethics

 And the Bhakti cult emerged that preached equality of all religions and the unity of godhead. There were saints like Ramananda, Vallabhacharya and Chaitanya made the gods as beloved of mass and the Bhakti system of religion spread in Hindu land. This period is quoted by historians as a reforming in religion.

 

During Mughul period the Hindu religion exist in supremacy and they also adopted the rectification influenced by Islam. These two religions were parallel formation of society and history shows that education was the priority both for Hindus and Muguls,

  “Female education of some sort existed during the Mugul period. The daughters of the imperial household, and of rich nobles, were given tuitions in their houses and we may assume that the daughters of the middle class people among the Hindus received primary education along with the boys in the schools and that some of them were conversant with religious literature. The Auxiliary committee of the Indian Statutory Commission rightly observed in September 1929, that there is nothing inherent either in the Hindu or in the Muslim religion which militates against the education of women. In fact, there were in India even in early days many examples of women possessing wide knowledge, particularly of sacred and classical literature.” An advanced History of India.

 It added further that poetry and literature in both Persian and of Hindus was flourished during this age. The reforms in religion was also seen during the time of British period and moment like Brahma Samaj, Parthana Samaj, Arya Samaj, the Deccan Education Society, the Theosophical Society and the Ramakrishna Mission came in the second half of the nineteenth century.

 No doubt, one can assume that action, morality, education and ethics were the main tributaries of religion in the Hindu land and it prevailed for thousands of years with the changes and amendments but nonetheless the religion which now prevailing, the Neo-Hindu religion had no trace in Hindus even at the time of Bhakti era.

All Hindu philosophies emphasized on knowledge and equality of every human being to attain knowledge and therefore the background of reasoning and logic resulted that such reforms emerged in India time to time and even at the influence of Greeks, Turks, Mongols and Islam, Hindu ideology breathed better because there was reasonable background of religious teachings.

 Certainly, it is Hindu civilization where there were no separate studies of ethics. The values were mixed with the nature and life style of every person. The common sense of men at present has to require a session to educate the common sense in India. The western ethics and moral science is in the curriculum of many schools. The social standards comparatively declined and so Radhakrishan in the Religion in Contemporary Philosophy noted-

“Our moral experience is not highest the religious experience transcends the moral. Moral life may presuppose an unfinished universe, a finite god and a doubtful struggle. But the moral life would lose its validity and meaning and moral struggle, its inspiration without the religious assurance. Morality points itself to religion where we feel the oneness of the universe.”

 There was no separate subject in Hindu race which made them learn to respect the vegetation and grow trees. There was also no separate subject to teach this race about the respect to elders and love to younger.