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A Tribute to Hinduism |
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A Tribute to Hinduism |
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Quotes: 1-20 21-40 41-60 61-80 81-100 Thoughts:
41. Alan Watts, (1915-1973) a professor, graduate
school dean and research fellow of Harvard University, drew heavily on the insights of
Vedanta. Watts became well known in the
1960s as a pioneer in bringing Eastern philosophy to the West.
"There
is an unrecognized but mighty taboo--our tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we
really are. Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate
ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western
science nor with the experimental philosophy religions of the East--in particular the
central and germinal Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. This hallucination underlies the
misuse of technology for the violent subjugation of man's natural environment and,
consequently, its eventual destruction. It is rather a cross-fertilization of Western
science with an Eastern intuition".79
42. Friedrich Majer, (1771-1818) a disciple of
Johann Gottfried Herder, an Orientalist found that:
" the priests of Egypt and the sages
of Greece have drawn directly from the original well of India," that it is to 'the banks of the
Ganges and the Indus that our hearts feel drawn as by some hidden urge.' 80
43. Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) German philosopher, poet and critic, clergyman, born
in East Prussia. Herder was an enormously influential literary critic and a
leader in the Sturn und Drang movement. He saw in India the:
"lost paradise of all religions and philosophies," 'the
cradle of humanity,' and also its 'eternal home,' the great Orient 'waiting to be
discovered within ourselves.' 81
According to him, " mankind's origins can be traced to India, where the human
mind got the first shapes of wisdom and virtue with a simplicity, strength and sublimity
which has - frankly spoken - nothing, nothing at all equivalent in our philosophical, cold
European world."82
Herder regarded the Hindus, because of their ethical teachings, as the most gentle and peaceful people on earth. Herder's "Thoughts of Some Brahmins "(1792) which contains a selection of gnomic stanzas in free translations, gathered from Bhartrihari, the Hitopdesa and the Bhagavad Gita, expressed these ideals. 83
44. Troy Wilson Organ, a professor at Ohio University wrote:
"Hindu thought is not a philosophy. It is
a philosophical religion... "Hinduism is a sadhna which seeks to guide man to
integration, to spiritualization, and to liberation......The concept of reincarnation is
the Hindu way of asserting that there are no temporal nor developmental limits to the
perfecting. "Hindu thought is natural, reasonable, and scientific. It is a
process, not a result - a process of perfecting man". In the Hindu Monism
(Advaita) God is not anthropormorphic being. He is All; He is not a despot or autocratic
God. 84.
"In the Hindu world, the folklore and popular mythology carry the truths and
teachings of the philosophers to the masses. In India, the mythology never ceased to
support and facilitate the expression of philosophic thought. The rich pictorial script of
the epic tradition, the features of the divinities whose incarnations and exploits
constituted the myth, became the vehicles of communication for the priests. In this way a
wonderful friendship of mythology and philosophy was effected; and this has been sustained
with such result that the whole edifice of Indian civilization is imbued with spiritual
meaning. The close interdependence of the two has served to counteract the natural
tendency of the philosophy to become esoteric, removed from solving life's problems. In
this symbolic form, the ideas have not been watered down to become popular. The vivid,
perfectly appropriate pictorial script preserves the doctrines without the slightest
damage to their senses." 85
45. Andre Malraux
(1901-1976), profound thinker and French prolific
writer, an essayist, novelist, art-historian, and political speech
writer, Malraux did
give his readers a philosophy.
" The problem of this century is the religious problem and the
discovery of Hindu thought will have a great deal to do with the solving of that
particular problem". 86
46. Dr. Karan Singh, heir apparent to the Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir, Indian Ambassador
to the U.S. and an outstanding thinker and leader.
"The Entire Cosmos is all pervaded by the same divine power. there is no utlimate duality in human existence or in consciousness. This is a truth which in the West is only recently being under stood after Einstein and Heisenberg and quantum mechanics. The Newtonian-Cartesian-Marxist paradigm of a materialistic universe has now been finally abolished, it has collapsed in the face of the new physics. Our ancient seers had a deeper insights into the nature of reality than people had even until very recently". 87
47.
August Wilhelm von Schlegel, German Scholar and Poet
(1767-1845). Learned Sanskrit and led the extensive development of Indology in
Germany.
"The divine origin of man, as taught in Vedanta, is continually
inculcated, to stimulate his efforts to return, to animate him in the struggle, and incite
him to consider a reunion and reincorporation with Divinity as the one primary object of
every action and reaction. Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the idealism of
reason as it is set forth by the Greek philosophers, appears in comparison with the
abundant light and vigor of Oriental idealism like a feeble Promethean spark in the full
fold of heavenly glory of the noonday sun, faltering and feeble and ever ready to be
extinguished." 88
Schlegel edited to original text of the Bhagavad Gita, together with a Latin translation, and paid tribute to its authors.
" I shall always adore the imprints of their feet"
89
48. Jawaharlal Nehru,(1889-1964) first prime minister of free India. Nehru
called the Vedas as:
"The unfolding of the human mind in the earliest stages of thought. And what a
wonderful mind it was!." It is the first outpourings of the human mind, the glow of
poetry, the rapture at nature's loveliness and mystery." A brooding spirit crept in
gradually till the author of the Vedas cried out: 'O Faith, endow us with belief'. It
raised deeper question in a hymn called the ' The Song of Creation'. 90
" The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual
foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties
of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the
universe." 91
49. A. E.
George Russel, the Irish poet, essayist, painter, Nationalist leader, mystic,
and economist; a leader in movement for cooperation among Irish farmers; editor The
Irish Statesman 1923-30.
Russel
paid an eloquent tribute to the Upanishads and the
Bhagavad Gita.
'Goethe, Wordswoth, Emerson, and Thoreau among moderns have something
of this vitality and wisdom but we can find all they have said and much more in the grand
sacred books of India."
"The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads contain such godlike
fullness of wisdom on all things that I feel the authors must have looked with calm
remembrance back through a thousand passionate lives, full of feverish strife for and with
shadows, ere they could have written with such certainty of things which the should feels
to be sure." 92
50.Paul Deussen,(1845-1919)
scholar of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, has observed:
"Whatever may be the discoveries of the scientific mind, none can dispute the eternal
truths propounded by the Upanishads. Though they may appear as riddles, the key to solving
them lies in our heart and if one were to approach them with an open mind one could secure
the treasure as did the Rishis of ancient times" 93
51.F.
C. Happold
said about the Upanishads:
"The most profound and revolutionary statement on the nature of reality,
which mankind has as yet made" 94
52. Dr. Heinrich Zimmer was a scholar with a great deal of first-hand knowledge of Indian philosophy and art history. Zimmer declared in his book "Philosophies of India" :
"We of the Occident are about to arrive at crossroads that was reached by the thinkers of India hundreds of years before Christ" 95
53. Ashby Philips of Princeton University echoes:
"The Hindu argument that all religions are equally valid may well sweep the world in the next 25 years. It may well be that within the foreseeable future, it will be Hinduism which will be challenging Christianity not only in India but in the west as well. Hinduism indeed has a new vitality not only suitable for defense but also adaptable for offense against Western religions." 96
54. N. A. Palkhiwala, the eminent Indian jurist says:
"India is eternal. Though the beginnings of her numerous civilizations go so far back in time that they are lost in the twilight of history, she has the gift of perpetual youth. Her culture is ageless and is as relevant to this present 20th century as it was to the 20th century before Christ." 97
55. Huston Smith, philosopher, most eloquent writer and authority on the history
of religions. Has taught at MIT and is currently visiting professor at Univ. of
California at Berkley. Smith has also produced PBS series. He has written
various books, " The
World's Religions", "Science and Human Responsibility",
and "The Religions of Man".
Here are Smith's
views on Symbols
and Idols of Hinduism:
"Enter Hinduism’s myths, her
magnificent symbols, her several hundred images of God, her rituals that keep turning
night and day like never-ending prayer wheels. It is obtuse to confuse Hinduism’s
images with idolatry, and their multiplicity with polytheism. They are 'runways' from
which the sense-laden human spirit can rise for its "flight of the alone to the
Alone". Even village priest will frequently open their temple ceremonies with the
following beloved invocation:
O Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my
human limitations:
Thou art everywhere, but I worship you here;
Thou art without form, but I worship you in these forms;
Thou needest no praise, yet I offer you these prayers and salutations,
Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations. 98
56.Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet (1694-1774) France's greatest writers and philosophers, said :
"We have shown how much we (Europeans) surpass
the Indians in courage and wickedness, and how inferior to them we are in wisdom. Our
European nations have mutually destroyed themselves in this land where we only go in
search of money, while the first Greeks traveled to the same land only to instruct
themselves." 99
Voltaire
concluded, " I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the
banks of the Ganges, - astronomy, astrology,metempsychosis, etc."
" It is very important to note that some 2,500 years ago at the least Pythagoras went
from Samos to the Ganges to learn geometry...But he would certainly not have undertaken
such a strange journey had the reputation of the Brahmins' science not been long
established in Europe... 100
57. William Macintosh
wrote: "All history points to
India as the mother of science and art,"
" This country was anciently so renowned for knowledge and wisdom that the
philosophers of Greece did not disdain to travel thither for their improvement."
101
58. Albert Einstein, (1879-1955)
physicist. In 1905 He published his theory of Relativity. Einstein
said:
"
When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe
everything else seems so superfluous."
"We owe a lot to Indians, who taught us
how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have
been made." 102
59. Pierre Sonnerat, a French naturalist, concurred:
"We find among the Indians the vestiges of the most remote antiquity....We know that all peoples came there to draw the elements of their knowledge ... India, in her splendor, gave religions and laws to all the other peoples; Egypt and Greece owed to her both their fables and their wisdom." 103
60. Sir William Jones ( 1746-1794),came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. He
pioneered Sanskrit studies. His admiration for Indian thought and culture was almost
limitless. Even at a time when Hinduism was at a low ebb and it was quite fashionable to
run it down, he held it in great esteem. While he believed in Christianity, he was
attracted to the Hindu concepts of the non-duality of God, as interpreted by Sankara, and
the transmigration of the human soul. The later theory he found more rational than the
Christian doctrine of punishment and eternity of pain. Writing to his close friend, Earl
Spencer, in 1787, he said:
" I am no Hindu, but I hold the doctrine of the
Hindus concerning a future state to be incomparably more rational, more pious, and more
likely to deter men from vice, than the horrid opinions, inculcated on punishments without
end" 104
Jones
firm belief in the Vedas is challenging and at
the same time illuminating:
" I can venture to affirm, without meaning to pluck
a leaf from the never-fading laurels of our immortal Newton, that the whole of his
theology, and part of his philosophy, may be found in the Vedas".
105
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