# The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2/Chapter 8

VIII THE HIGHEST LAW. (1886)
Morality is the essence of religion, the verification of our hope and faith, our ideals and aspirations. The hidden root, the secret spring of morality is religion. The two run so close into each other that, if separated, each by itself is useless or aimless. Without morality, religion is base hypocrisy or hollow superstition. Divorced from religion, morality is; at best, calculating selfishness or prudent abstinence. Morality vivifies religion; religion sanctifies morality. Two sides of the same grand human nature, the negligence of either is the degradation of the other.
But what is the sum of morality; the acknowledged golden rule? To "love thy neighbour as thyself," "to cherish all creatures as thine own person," has in all ages been applauded as the highest law. With ​the sanction of unnumbered generations, the precept that we should do unto others as we would that others should do unto us is handed on to us as the highest principle of morality; nor were they ordinary souls that laid down this wise rule. Self-love is an instinct, a deep-seated natural prompting, in every bosom. Imprinted on every heart and ruling all one's thoughts and actions, this instinct is the source of all offence—of all injustice and inhumanity—in the world. It runs through every human concern; it is the motive-power of all human movements. With their incommensurable wisdom, therefore, our ancestors, who were deep-read in all the secrets of human nature—its prejudices and its predilections—summed up the essence of all morality in that one golden rule which has ever challeged the just admiration of a civilised world.
"Hear virtue's sum expressed in one Brief maxim—lay it well to heart; Never do to others what, if done To thee, wonld cause the inward smart."
But, after all, this love of one's neighbour as oneself does not appear to be the highest law. The acme of true morality is loftier than a just recognition of the world's equality to one's own self. In fact, with the growth and refinement of man's moral nature, the love of self sinks and ultimately disappears. The patriot that bleeds in the country's cause; the philanthropist that, by his dumb eloquence and silent self-sacrifice, pleads the cause of his very murderers; the doctor that throws himself into pestilence and even sucks up poison to snatch a precious life from the sharp scythe of the "grim old king;" the mother that embraces death to ensure the safety of her innocent babe; the lover that risks and lays down his own life in defence or pursuit of the beloved; the martyr that smiles on the scaffold and seals the truth of his ​conviction with his life-blood—all live and move and have their being in an ethical atmosphere purer, nobler and holier than that of the morality enjoined by "Love thy neighbour as thyself". To live up to the dictates of a pure conscience and to uphold an inspiring ideal is an impossibility with one who takes any cognition of self as such. In the higher stages of moral progress, in the loftier flights of philanthropy and heroism, self is left behind as a mere nonentity; God, truth, and the world are the only concerns; and faithful service in their behalf and towards their glorification is the sole aim and ambition. To love thy neighbour as thyself is surely a noble law, a golden rule; but to shake off self, to live for the peace of the world and the glory of God, is the noblest of all laws, the very crest-gem of a moral precept. A total denial of self, an unhesitating march into the very forefront of truth, is an absolute necessity in the more advanced stages of that endless pilgrimage called life.
​ But a realisation of this, the highest moral law, can come only in the wake of some other sublime experiences. An unswerving faith in the potency and ultimate triumph of truth must invariably precede a love of truth for its own sake. There should exist an unwavering belief in the continuous march of the world towards truth, justice and righteousness—an unhesitating sacrifice of all that one is or has, on the altar of truth, simply because it is the truth. And this firm belief in the final victory of truth presupposes an equally strong belief in the existence of an All-wise, All-guiding Principle with infinite qualities—infinite power, infinite wisdom and infinite love. If the world is continuously miking for righteousness; if human nature is incessantly gaining ground towards truth and virtue, an All-guiding God is an inevitable pre-requisite. As Professor Stokes, the present President of the Royal Society, said in a recent address, a Divine Being, a Wise Deity, is a very necessity of thought, when the world ​is understood to be systematically progressing in truth and purity. Thus the highest morality and the most charming yet the simplest religion recognise and embrace each other as twin-sisters; and thus a deep self-denying love for God and His world, and not a calculating utilitarianism—"the gospel of enlightened selfishness"—is the basis and the key-stone, the motive-power and the moulding process of the highest morality, the noblest manhood. Let us then offer our hearts to our God and our actions to our neighbours, solely out of pure, disinterested love; resting assured that ours will be a noble heritage that jealousy cannot steal, time cannot exhaust and death cannot usurp.