rous
language and the doctrine has sometimes been abused. But the point of
the teaching is not that a Sannyasi may do what he likes but that he
is perfectly emancipated from material bondage. Most men are bound by
their deeds; every new act brings consequences which attach the doer
to the world of transmigration and create for him new existences. But
the deeds of the man who is really free have no such trammelling
effects, for they are not prompted by desire nor directed to an
object. But since to become free he must have suppressed all desire,
it is hardly conceivable that he should do anything which could be
called a sin. But this conviction that the task of the sage is not to
perfect any form of good conduct but to rise above both good and evil,
imparts to the Darsanas and even to the Upanishads a singularly
non-ethical and detached tone. The Yogi does no harm but he has less
benevolence and active sympathy than the Buddhist monk. It was a
feeling that such an attitude has its dangers and is only for the few
who have fought their way to the heights where it can safely be
adopted, that led the Brahmans in all ages to lay stress on the
householder's life as the proper preparation for a philosophic old
age. Despite utterances to the contrary, they never as a body approved
the ideal of a life entirely devoted to asceticism and not occupied
with social duties during one period. The extraordinary ease with
which the higher phases of Indian thought shake off all formalities,
social, religious and ethical, was counterbalanced by the
multitudinous regulations devised to keep the majority in a
law-abiding life.

None of the six Darsanas concern themselves with ethics. The more
important deal with the transcendental progress of sages who have
avowedly abandoned the life of works, and even those which treat of
that lower life are occupied with ritual and logic rather than with
anything which can be termed moral science. We must not infer that
Indian literature is altogether unmoral. The doctrine of Karma is
intensely ethical and ethical discussions are more prominent in the
Epics than in Homer, besides being the subject of much gnomic and
didactic poetry. But there is no mistaking the fact that the Hindu
seeks for salvation by knowledge. He feels the power of deeds, but it
is only the lower happiness which lies in doing good works and
enjoying their fruits. The higher bliss consists in being entirely
free from the bondage of d