Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 178
178 idea of making the Vedas responsible for such a hideous doctrine. I am sure that human nature repels the idea extremely dis- gusting that a man should tell his own chaste wife who belongs to a respectable and noble family to have connection with a stranger simply for the chance of getting a son, in spite of the continuance of her conjugal relations with her own husband, or that the wife should herself desire to adopt such a shameful course of life. Even some animals are so jealous of their mates that they do not like their living with other males. It is not my object to enter into any discussion here. I humbly entreat the leaders of the Arya Samaj to renounce this doctrine, because in it lies their moral betterment. The people of this country have already much fallen off from true purity and if practices like the Niyoga remain in vogue, the moral degradation of the country would only grow deeper and deeper day by day. Here I take occasion to express my views on another point of equal importance. Whatever the feeling of hatred which the Arya Samaj entertains towards JVIuslims and tbe principles of Islam, it should not make a total departure from the time-honored custom of purdah, for such a course would be productive of im- mense evil and mischief, though it may appear to be attractive at the present moment. Every sensible person can easily under- stand that the majority of men and women in this age are walking only in obedience to their passions and desires, and are so com- pletely in their control that they do not care aught for the retribution of their deeds. Most young men cannot refrain from looking to lust after young and beautiful women if they get a chance to look at them at all, and so is also the case of most women. If in this state when the hearts of both sexes are not free from corruption and evil and are unable to resist the temp- tations of flesh, a too free intercourse of men and women is