A Holy Man of India

INDIA
ITS LIFE AND THOUGHT

BY

JOHN P. JONES, D.D.

SOUTH INDIA

AUTHOR OF "INDIA'S PROBLEM, KRISHNA OR CHRIST,"
ETC., ETC.

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1908

Copyright, 1908,

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Dedicated

TO MY DEAR CHILDREN

WHO HAVE

BRAVELY AND CHEERFULLY ENDURED

THE SEPARATION AND THE LOSS OF HOME

FOR THE SAKE OF INDIA

[ix]

PREFACE

To the people of the West, the inhabitants of India are the leastunderstood and the most easily misunderstood of all men.

It is partly because they are antipodal to the West—the farthestremoved in thought and life. They are also the most secretive, andfind perennial delight in concealment and evasion.

According to Hindu teaching, the Supreme Spirit forever sports inillusion. It continuously manifests itself through unreal and falseforms, which delude and lead astray ignorant man. In harmony with thisphilosophy of the Divine—and may it not be as a result of it?—thepeople of India too often delight in unreal and deceptive exhibitionsof themselves. At any rate, it is exceedingly difficult for a man ofthe West, especially he of the Anglo-Saxon type, to apprehend the fullsignificance and the correct drift of life and thought of this land.

It is amusing, when not discouraging, to witness travellers, who haverushed through India in a winter tour, publish volumes of theirmisconceptions and ill-digested theories about the people with anoracular emphasis which is equalled only by their ignorance.[x]

The author of this book makes no claim to a right to speak excathedra upon this subject. Nevertheless, thirty years of maturedexperience in this land, living in constant touch with the people andstudying with eagerness their life and thought, gives him an humbleclaim to speak once more upon the subject.

Even now, however, his pride of knowledge is chastened by theoft-recurring surprises which the Oriental nature and life still bringto him. And he does not cease to pray, with a western saint, who, atthe end of a half century of work for the people of India, daily criedout,—

"O Lord, help me to know these people and to come into intimaterelations of life with them!"

If, in these pages, he can help others of the West to come face toface with the immense and intricate problems which confront all whodesire to know, to help, and to bless India, and shall enable them tounderstand better the conditions and characteristics of life in theLand of the Vedas, he will feel amply repaid for his labours.

I express my deep gratitude to the Rev. J. L. Barton, D.D., for hiskind encouragement in the publishing of this book; and also to theRev. W. W. Wallace, M.A., for his generous aid in the proof-reading.

J. P. JONES.

[xi]

CONTENTS