Photo by W. M. Zumbro 



THi: ROIvIvING penance: 



One of the most, common forms of penance is that of roUing the body on the ground, 

 often for very great distances. The man shown in the picture is roUing around the sacred 

 rock at Tirupurankundram. 



tion from the world and its pleasures in 

 order to secure the ineffable joy of union 

 with the Divine has helped to keep the 

 heart of India turned away from the 

 commercial and material things of life 

 and has helped to hold India true to its 

 deep religious nature, has exalted in the 

 minds of the people the excellence of the 

 spiritual over the material. 



It has held in abeyance every spirit of 

 inquiry and has prevented the rise of the 

 scientific spirit, since it looks upon all 

 phenomena as illusion, and holds that 

 true knowledge is to be gained only by 

 contemplation and austerities, and re- 

 gards passing events with contempt. 



It has kept alive for centuries an army 

 of five million idlers, v/ho, though able- 

 bodied men, produce nothing and live on 

 the charity of those who work. 



As to the future of Sadhuism, there 

 can be no doubt but that the system is 

 losing somewhat of its hold over the peo- 

 ple. The commercial spirit of the West 

 is coming in, emphasizing the desirability 

 of physical good, stimulating the hunt for 

 wealth, and the British government se- 



cures this wealth in the possession of the 

 owner. 



English education is eagerly sought 

 after, and the youth educated in western 

 thought hold the Sadhu in something of 

 disdain. A new national spirit is being 

 developed which substitutes interest in 

 present affairs for a far-off goal of libera- 

 tion from rebirth. 



Consequently the inevitable struggle be- 

 tween the old and the new is already 

 under way, but the spirit of Sadhuism is 

 too deeply rooted in the life of India to 

 be altogether displaced. 



And, indeed, when one remembers the 

 industrialism of the West, its vulgar ag- 

 gressiveness, its sordidness, its unscrupu- 

 lous struggle for wealth, as if that were 

 the only good, the cares of life choking" 

 out the good seed and deadening the re- 

 ligious emotions, one cannot but wish that 

 the people of India may long retain 

 enough of this spirit to hold them true to 

 the simple, frugal, unconventional life of 

 the fathers and keep the emphasis on the 

 value of the spiritual and unseen things 

 of life above the material and sensuous. 



1291 



