His aim was not to acquire but to realize, to enlarge his consciousness by growing with and growing into his surroundings. Having been in constant contact with the living growth of nature, his mind was free from the desire to extend his dominion by erecting boundary walls around his acquisitions. But in ancient India we find that the circumstances of forest life did not overcome man's mind, and did not enfeeble the current of his energies, but only gave to it a particular direction. Such a life, it may be thought, tends to have the effect of dulling human intelligence and dwarfing the incentives to progress by lowering the standards of existence. It was surrounded by the vast life of nature, was fed and clothed by her, and had the closest and most constant intercourse with her varying aspects. Thus in India it was in the forests that our civilization had its birth, and it took a distinct character from this origin and environment. And the different Aryan clans with their patriarchal heads settled in the different forest tracts which had some special advantage of natural protection, and food and water in plenty. These forests afforded them shelter from the fierce heat of the sun and the ravages of tropical storms, pastures for cattle, fuel for sacrificial fire, and materials for building cottages. When the first Aryan invaders appeared in India it was a vast land of forests, and the new-comers rapidly took advantage of them. It breeds in us a strong suspicion of whatever is beyond the barriers we have built, and everything has to fight hard for its entrance into our recognition. We divide nation and nation, knowledge and knowledge, man and nature. They set up a principle of 'divide and rule' in our mental outlook, which begets in us a habit of securing all our conquests by fortifying them and separating them from one another. These walls leave their mark deep in the minds of men. In fact, all the modern civilizations have their cradles of brick and mortar. THE CIVILIZATION OF ancient Greece was nurtured within city walls. The Relation of the Individual to the Universe 1 The Relation of the Individual to the Universe.
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