e taken,
and very often that step is the experiencing of evil, in order that
suffering may burn the desire for evil out of the very heart. And just
as the knife of the surgeon is different from the knife of the murderer,
although both may pierce the human flesh, the one cutting to cure, the
other to slay; so is the sharp knife of the Supreme, when by experience
of evil and consequent pain He purifies the man, different, because the
motive is other than the doing of evil to gratify passion, the stepping
aside from righteousness in order to please the lower nature.

Last of all He shows himself as the Supreme; there is the
Vaishnava form, the universal form, the form that contains the
universe. But still more is the Supreme seen in the profound wisdom of
the teaching, in the steadfastness of His walk through life. Does it
sound strange to say that God is seen more in the latter than the
former, that the outer form that contains the universe is less divine
than the perfect steadfast nature, swerving neither to the right hand
nor the left? Read that life again with this thought in your mind, of
one purpose followed to its end no matter what forces might play on the
other side, and its greatness may appear.

What did He come to do? He came to give the last lesson to the
Kshattriya caste of India, and to open India to the world. Many lessons
had been given to that great caste. We know that twenty-one times they
had been cut off, and yet re-established. We know that Shri Rama had
shown the perfect life of Kshattriya, as an example that they might
follow. They would not learn the lesson, either by destruction or by
love. They would not follow the example either from fear or from
admiration. Then their hour struck on the bell of Heaven, the knell of
the Kshattriya caste. He came to sweep away that caste and to leave only
scattered remnants of it, dotted over the Indian soil. It had been the
sword of India, the iron wall that ringed her round. He came to shiver
that wall into pieces, and to break the sword that it might not strike
again. It had been used to oppress instead of to protect. It had been
used for tyranny instead of for justice. Therefore he who gave it brake
it, till men should learn by suffering what they would not learn by
precept. And on the field of Kuru, the Kshattriya caste fought its last
great battle; none were left of all that mighty host save a handful,
when the fighting was over. Never has the caste recove