ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Murty starts by asserting that human nature is the same all over the world, whether Eastern or Western and the metaphysical and mystical experiences are the same the world over. God and the eternal values of Truth, Beauty and Goodness have been revealed to the best of minds in every age and nation. Hindu culture is not averse to progress and prosperity. There have been a few wise men who preferred to live away from societies in hermitages in forests, but there were also many who lived in āśramas not far from town and cities, meditating and advising kings, and teaching, cultivating land and growing plantations, pastures and cattle, were married with children, and who certainly were not ascetics. Murty shows with numerous examples from the classics that it was not caste but power and money that ruled India. Mobility between the castes was possible, although it was difficult for the śūdras. The Mīmāṃsakas, for instance, spurned the idea of renunciation. It was the popularity of Buddhism and Jainism that brought renunciation (sannyāsa) into vogue. Gītā, on the other hand, only advocated renunciation of the fruits of one's action. And it was Śaṅkara who made sannyāsa fashionable. To generalise from a minority of instances and characterise India as world-negating and other-worldly is to distort history.
