# The Philosophy of Bhagawad-Gita/Fourth Lecture

LECTURE IV
THE subject of these lectures is a very vast and complicated one. I have endeavoured to compress the substance of my lectures within the required limits, expecting to go through the whole discourse in three days, but my calculations have failed, and I have hardly finished even the introduction. These lectures must necessarily remain imperfect, and all I could do in them was to lay before you a few suggestions upon which you should meditate.
A good deal will depend on your own exertions. The subject is very difficult; it ramifies into various departments of science, and the truth I have been putting forward will not be easily grasped, and I might not even have succeeded in conveying my exact meaning to your minds. Moreover, as I have not given reasons for every one of my propositions, and have not cited authorities in support of my statements, some of them might appear strange.
I am afraid that before you can grasp my real ideas, you will have to study all the existing commentaries on the Bhagavad-Gita, as well as the original itself, according to your own light, and see besides this to what conclusions the speculations of ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/117 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/118 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/119 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/120 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/121 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/122 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/123 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/124 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/125 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/126 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/127 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/128 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/129 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/130 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/131 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/132 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/133 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/134 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/135 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/136 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/137 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/138 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/139 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/140 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/141 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/142 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/143 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/144 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/145 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/146 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/147 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/148 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/149 ​Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/150 ​of having Hinduism, we have assimilated a whole collection of superstitious beliefs and practices which do not by any means tend to promote the welfare of the Hindu nation, but demoralise it and sap its spiritual strength, and have led to the present state of things, which, I believe, is not entirely due to political degeneration.
Our Society stands upon an altogether unsectarian basis; we sympathise with every religion, but not with every abuse that exists under the guise of religion; and while sympathising with every religion, and making the best efforts we can for the purpose of recovering the common foundations that underlie all religious beliefs, it ought to be the duty of every one of us to try to enlighten our own countrymen on the philosophy of religion, endeavour to lead them back to a purer faith--a faith which, no doubt, did exist in former times, but which now lives but in name or in the pages of forgotten books.
Printed by J. R. Aria at the Vasanta Press, Adyar, Madras.