Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/110

they represent the first essential step that leads on to salvation, while evil deeds form a barrier that keeps a man from making even the first step in his progress towards knowledge and beatitude. That a Saint cannot sin, or that Sciens non peecat, has been held true not in India only, but it is easily seen in what sense this is either true or false, whether in India or at home. It cannot be deeply enough impressed on the minds of the modern apostles of Rmakrrsh#a that nothing would be more likely to lower their master and their own work in the eyes of serious people than the slightest moral laxity on their part, or a defence of any such laxity on the ground that a fftfSnin, a Knower, is above morality. It is one thing to say that such a man cannot sin because his passions are completely subdued, another that if he should from any defect of knowledge lapse from his passionless and perfect state it could not be imputed to him as sin. I confess there is a little uncertainty on that point even among ancient authorities, but we know as yet far too little of the classical Ved&ntie writings to speak with confidence on such a point There are too many passages in which strict morality is enjoined as a sine qua non for Vedintic freedom to allow any one to use a few doubtful passages in defence of im- morality. When we have first learnt all that can be learnt from the Ved&nta, it will be time to begin to criticise it, or, if possible, to improve it We study the systems of Plato and Aristotle, of Spinoza and Kant, not as containing the foil and perfect truth, cut and dry, but as helping us on towards the truth. Every one of these contains partial