518 SPIRITUAL PRIDE
men are seduced and led astray. It was only by penances, they contended, that man could break through the trammels of his personal passions and everyday surroundings, which held the soul enthralled. The right degree of excellence and spirituality necessary for the emancipation of the soul, they urged, could only be obtained, little by little, by the exercise of continuous penances. By these means alone
could the soul be reunited for ever to the Supreme Divinity, to Parabrahma; and it was only when he had achieved
this state of perfection that the penitent had the right to cry: ' Ahum Brahma /' I am Brahma! I am the
Supreme Being!
Is it to be wondered at that men who, in this pursuit of spiritual perfection, were actuated only by motives of pride
and self-conceit, when once they attained, according to their own vain presumption, the state of perfection at
which they aimed— is it to be wondered at, I say, that these men looked down upon all the rest of their fellow-men with
ineffable disdain, whatever their social rank might be, and considered them as degraded beings still wallowing in the
mire of vice, slaves to their own passions *?
This spiritual pride was still further encouraged by the tokens of respect, and even adoration, which the very greatest princes showered upon them. The apparent coldness with which they received such homage was certainly not the outcome of humility; it was rather caused by the firm conviction that they were only receiving what was their just due. Alexander the Great, who bent every one to his will, tried in vain to persuade one of the most celebrated of these Vanaprasthas, called Dindime or Dandamis, to visit him. However, the Hindu philosopher condescended
to write to the conqueror, though the letter attributed to him by the Greek historians is evidently apocryphal, or at
any rate interpolated with many embellishments and ideas which would never have occurred to a Gymnosophist. Be that as it may, some report that the Macedonian hero saw
1
The Abbe is hardly just in placing such a low value on this pride of righteousness. The sacred Hindu books are unanimous in describing
these saintly men as gentle, cpriet, and loving. The ignorant and narrowminded Brahmin priests, however, cannot be said to have ever realized
this high state of spiritual perfection. Ed.