Some of the intellectual
celebraties in the world of the
West and the East had the following things
to say about Hinduism:
"antiquarian charm and historical importance."
(source: The Universal Gita: Western Images of the Bhagavad Gita a Bicentenary Survey - By Eric J. Sharpe p. 4-5)
134. Charles Johnston ( ? ) a retired English civil servant in Bengal and a Sanskrit scholar, brought forth a translation in 1908 in
"The Bhagavad Gita is one of the noblest scriptures of
(source: Bhagavad Gita: "The Song Of the Master" - By Charles Johnston, trans. (Flushing, New York: Charles Johnston, 1908, pp. vi-xvii).
135. Professor Louis Renou (1896-1966) French Indologists, author of several books including Hinduism, Civilization in Ancient India, L'Inde fondamentale. He wrote in 1962:
"Truth is for Hinduism an indivisible treasure; spiritual immediacy is widely distributed, the mystic path is open to everyone. In its purest forms, this religion becomes a type of wisdom, that wisdom which impressed the ancient Greeks when they visited
(source: Hinduism - By Louis Renou p. 56 - 57).
"The fact remains that Hinduism provides an incomparable field of study for the historian of religion: its aberrations are many, but there is in it a great stream of mystical power: it manifests all the conceptions of religion, and its speculation is continually revealing them in a new light. It combines powers of constant renewal with a firm conservancy of fundamental tradition. In Bhakti and still more in Yoga, it has perfected unrivalled technique of mystical initiation, that contrast strongly with the frequently haphazard methods of spiritual training in the West. Above all, in the interpenetration of religion and dharma in general and the reciprocal stimulus of abstract thought and religious experiment, there is an underlying principle, that, given favorable conditions, may well lead to a new integration of the human personality."
(source: Religions of Ancient India - By Louis Renou p. 110).
He writes: "For almost everyone the Bhagavad-Gita is the book par excellence."
(source: Readings in Vedic Literature - By Satsvarupa dasa Goswami p. 38).
The well known Indologist and Sanskrit scholar at the
"
(source: The Vision of India - By Sisirkumar Mitra p. 210-211).
"The importance of the Veda to
"To the Indian mind, God is 'l'hypostase deficiente de l'Absolut', as M. Olivier Lacombe (L'Absolu selon le Vedanta - The Absolute according to Vedanta) has said. The world is usually envisaged as an attribute of the divine. In short, the divine is both transcendent and immanent...from early times it was said that the Supreme Being is silence."
"India in her exhaustion has often taken refuge in ahimsa and the Vedantic scale of values; but a new and more self-assertive generation may be at hand, a generation imbued with the spirit of Yajnavalkaya." The Veda may once again become a great source of inspiration, as it was to the fiery Dayananda Saraswati in the nineteenth century, who set out to establish a mystique of national and social import based on the Vedas."
(source: Religions of Ancient India - By Louis Renou p. 42 - 69).
136. Georg Feuerstein is a specialist in the Sanskrit literature of yoga and has written considerable number of articles on various aspects of Indian thought. He has written various books including the Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy, and Practice and ' The Introduction to the Bhagavad Gita: Its philosophy and Cultural Setting. He observes:
" From earliest times Indian man has shown a distinct predilection for philosophical speculation about the nature of man and the universe. Long before the rise of Greek thought, he grappled with the profoundest problems of philosophy. By the time the Gita was complied, philosophical enquiry had already reached a noteworthy degree of maturity, complexity and coherence. The musings of the early Vedic seers had developed in depth and breadth as well as in clarity and precision."
"The dry, academically stilted approach of contemporary Indology, with little interest in the inner meaning of its subject matter, becomes singularly apparent in the Gita, which is brimming with significance."
(source: The Introduction to the Bhagavad Gita: Its philosophy and Cultural Setting p. 61 and 84- 85).
"
"Our world, the sages of ancient
"God, is not the Creator-God of deistic religions like Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Rather, God is the transcendental totality of existence, which in the non-dualist schools of Hinduism is styled the Brahman, "Absolute".
"In a sense, Monoism justifies the emotional discord apparent in most of its Occidental followers and rationalizes their self-centeredness. In the case of
(source: Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy - By Georg Feuerstein p. 2 - 15 ASIN 0874775205). For more refer to chapter on Yoga and Hindu Philosophy).
137. Philostratus, (AD 220) ancient Greek writer, son-in-law of Flavius Philostratus. Philostratus puts in the mouth of Apollonius of Tyana these words:
"All wish to live in the nearness of God, but only the Hindus bring it to pass."
(source: Hinduism and Buddhism - By Sir Charles Eliot volume 1 p. lxii).
138. Prema Chaitanya ( ? ) praises Hinduism's classic contention "Truth is one; sages call it by different names." or "Ekam sath, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti"
" How artistic, that there should be room for such variety - how rich the texture is, and how much more interesting than if the Almighty had decreed one antiseptically safe, exclusive, orthodox way. Although he is Unity, God finds, it seems, his recreation in variety!" But beyond these differences, the same goal beckons.
(source: The World's Religions - By Huston Smith p 73 & 81).
139. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, (1850-1919) famous American poet and journalist who is perhaps best remembered for verse tinged with an eroticism that was still unconventional for her time. Wilcox poems have been collected in volumes such as Poems of Pleasure (1897) and Maurine and Other Poems (1888), states that:
"
140. Paul William Roberts ( ? ) taught at Oxford for a year before setting off around the world, stopping in India before settling in Canada, where he has been an award-winning television writer and producer, university lecturer, journalist, film and book critic and novelist.
He journeyed through India for twenty years, and in his book Empire of the Soul: Some Journeys in India creates a dazzling mosaic, by turns tragic and comic, of the subcontinent and its people and he says:
“India is the only country that feels like home to me, the only country whose airport tarmac I have ever kissed upon landing.”
“The Vedas still represent eternal truth in the purest form ever written. And they are what drew me to
“In the beginning the Divine Will
arose,
This was the first seed from the Creator’s mind.
Those who can see deeper by putting their mind and heart
together as one
Found the underlying essence of all existence was deep
beyond all that exists,
Fount the non-existent existing in the existent.”
This was the first seed from the Creator’s mind.
Those who can see deeper by putting their mind and heart
together as one
Found the underlying essence of all existence was deep
beyond all that exists,
Fount the non-existent existing in the existent.”
Here you have
the quintessence of classical Indian philosophy. Thinking with your heart; loving with your mind. All yoga
and meditation aim to attain this one goal. Anything eles is delusion, or
worse. And when the heart sees, it sees the unknowable, nameless, formless,
limitless, supreme God.
He is called nonexistent because he is
eternal, beyond existence.“
“The Vedas hold enough information to
rebuild human civilization from scratch, if necessary. I think someone did
believe that might be necessary one day.”
“The Vedas
see the ultimate Truth behind all ephemeral truths. The Creation leads us to
the Creator, to the highest knowledge, which is integrated into one.”
“Some Vedic
hymns paint the exquisite glories of the natural world; the preternatural
beauty of predawn light, its rosy fingers holding the iridescent steel-blue
sky; some celebrate the welcome cool of evening, the scented breeze of a calm and
refreshing night, its basalt dome studded with shimmering pearls and diamonds.
Beauty permeates them, a reflection of Truth.”
(source: Empire of the Soul: Some Journeys in India - By Paul
William Roberts Riverhead
Books New York 1994 p. 299 -325). 141. Niels Henrik David Bohr, (1885-1962) Danish nuclear physicist who developed the Bohr model of the atom. His received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1922, for his theory of atomic structure (Quantum Theory).
He is on record as saying that he goes into the Upanishads to ask questions.
(source: From article - Indian Conquests of the Mind - By Saibal Gupta. The Statesman.org)
142. John Archibald Wheeler, (1911 - ) physicist, the first American involved in the theoretical development of the atomic bomb. He also originated a novel approach to the unified field theory.
He has worked with such famous physicists as: Einstein, Thorne, Oppenheimer, Bohr, etc.
Professor Emeritus at Princeton and
Wheeler wrote: “I like to think that someone will trace how the deepest thinking of
It is curious that people like Schroedinger, Niels Bohr, Oppenheimer and John Wheeler are Upanishad scholars.
(source: From article - Indian Conquests of the Mind - By Saibal Gupta. The Statesman.org).
“One has the feeling that the thinkers
of the East knew it all, and if we could only translate their answers into our
language we would have the answers to all our questions.”
(source: Uncommon Wisdom - By Fritjof Capra p. 40).
143. Lin Yutang (1895-1976) Chinese scholar and author of the book, The Wisdom of China and "Hindus are natural mystics, mysticism meaning a form of religion aiming at achieving direct union with God. To achieve the union of the individual soul (atman) with the world soul (brahman) behind all things may be said to be the whole effort of the Vedic philosophy."
He further writes:
"My love and true respect for
"The creative imagination of the Hindus has conceived no loftier and holier character than Sita; the literature of the world has not produced a higher ideal of womanly love, womanly truth, and womanly devotion."
"The contact with poets, forest saints and the best wits of the land, the glimpse into the first awakening of Ancient India's mind as it searched, at times childishly and naively, at times with a deep intuition, but at all times earnestly and passionately, for the spiritual truths and the meaning of existence - this experience must be highly stimulating to anyone, particularly because the Hindu culture is so different and therefore so much to offer." "Not until we see the richness of the Hindu mind and its essential spirituality can we understand
"
"
It is apparent that only in
The Indian culture is highly creative and in fact has enriched the world literature with the droll humor that we associate with the Arabian Nights.
(source: The Wisdom of China and India - By Lin Yutang p. 3-4 and 135 -141 and 265-7).
144. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was a talented poet who was influenced by Emerson and from whom he borrowed a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. To Emerson he wrote: "I will e'en keep it until I restore it to thee personally in exchange for George Fox (founder of the Society of Friends, the Quakers). "It is a wonderful book-and has greatly excited my curiosity to know more of the religious literature of the East."
(source: The Oriental Religions and American Thought (Nineteenth-Century Explorations), Carl T. Jackson -
Greenwood Press, The results of
145. Maurice Winternitz (1863-1937) famed Indologist, author of History of Indian Literature, states:
" From the mystical doctrines of the Upanishads, one current of thought may be traced to the mysticism of Persian Sufism, to the mystic, theosophic logos doctrine of the Neo-Platonics and the Alexandrian Christian Mystics, Eckhart and Tauler, and finally to the philosophy of the great German mystic of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer."
(source: History of Indian Literature - By Maurice Winternitz volume 1. p. 266)
Professor Winternitz, remarks in his Indian Literature and World Literature:
“Garbe, the greatest authority on
Samkhya Philosophy in Europe, has made it very probable that Samkhya Philosophy
has been of influence on the philosophical ideas of Heraklitos, Empedokles,
Anxagoras, Demokritos and Epikuros…It
seems to me to be proved the Pythagoras was influenced by the Indian Samkhya.
Nor have I any doubt that the Gnostic and Neo-Platonic philosophies have been
influenced by Indian philosophical ideas.”
(source: Manu: A Study in Hindu Social Theory - By
Kewal Motwani p. 230).
“For the
history of the literary treasures of ancient India
(source: Some Problems of Indian Literature - By Maurice Winternitz).
146. M. A. Sherring, noted missionary of the 19th century, eloquently
described the antiquity of Varanasi, in
the following words:“When Babylon was struggling with Nineveh for supremacy, when Tyre was planting her colonies, when Athens was growing in strength, before Rome had become known, or Greece had contended with Persia, or Cyprus had added lustre to the Persian monarchy, or Nebuchadnezzar had captured Jerusalem, and the inhabitants of Judaea had been carried into captivity, she (Varanasi) had already risen to greatness, if not to glory.”
(source: Banaras - City of
147. H. Stutfield author of Mysticism and Catholicism states:
"Especially does there seem to be a growing probability that, from the historical standpoint at any rate,
(source: Mysticism and Catholicism - By H Stutfield 1925 p. 31).
148. F. W. J. Schelling (1773-1854) a crucial figure in the development of German idealist and nature philosophy, Eastern ideas pervade and color much of his thinking. In his book Philosophy of Mythology, he devoted to
(source: An Introduction to Hinduism - By Gavin Flood p. 269).
Through out his life Schelling expressed great interest in and support for Indian studies, and in his 1802 lecture he lavished praise on the 'sacred texts of the Indians, claiming that they were superior to the Bible.
(source: Oriental Enlightenment: The encounter between Asian and Western thought - By J. J. Clarke p. 61-63)
149. Robert Southey (1774-1843), English poet, generally considered a member of the romantic movement. He was born in
He had read the Bhagavad Gita in the preparation of his lurid narrative poem The Curse of Kehama written in 1810.
Southey's verse is among the first in English to incorporate Hindu mythology into verse, so that in The Curse of Kehama we find references:
A stream descends on Meru mountain
None hath seen its secret fountain;
It had its birth, so Sages say,
Upon the memorable day
When Parvati presumed to lay
In wanton play,
her hands, too venturous Goddess, in her mirth,
On Seeva's eyes, the light and life of Earth...
Thereat the heart of the Universe stood still...
And
The Holy River, the Redeeming Flood.
(source: British Attitudes to
150. K. P. Mukherji ( ? ) has observed: "The essential point which Westerners and Westernized Indians have to bear in mind, is that the Hindu Culture is through through synthetic, it aims at the synthesis of the here and hereafter, the world and the other world, the appearance that is many and the reality that is one, the temporal and the eternal, the positive and the transcendental."
(source: Ancient Indian History and Culture - By Chidambara Kulkarni Orient Longman Ltd. 1974. p. 266).
151. F. W. Thomas, in The Legacy of India, says:
"What gives to the Upanishads their unique quality and unfailing human appeal is an earnest sincerity of tone, as of friends conferring upon matters of deep concern."
He wrote in his book The Mutual Influence of Mohammedans and Hindus,
"Hinduism is one of the greatest assimilants that the world has known." "It is infinitely absorbent like the ocean."
(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 90 and The Mutual Influence of Mohammedans and Hindus - by F W Thomas).
152. Deepak Chopra Vedantic sage and wise-man from the East, author of several books including Ageless Body, Timeless Mind says of Hinduism:
"I find that Vedanta, of all great traditions, does have a framework that I can come to terms with as a person who thinks that science is the most legitimate way of understanding the secrets of nature."
" I regard Vedanta as a source which inspired Hinduism." He emphasizes the Bhagavad Gita, as one of the gemstones of the Vedantic traditions.
(source: Deepak Chopra: Vedantic Evangelist - Hinduism Today July/August 2000)
153. Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), leading English Sculptor. After studying with Rodin in
Epstein has written about Shiva Nataraja:
"Shiva dances, creating the world and destroying it, his large rhythms conjure up vast aeons of time, and his movements have a relentless magical power of incantation. Our European allegories are banal and pointless by comparison with these profound works, devoid of the trappings of symbolism, concentrating on the essential, the essentially plastic."
(source: Let There Be Sculpture - By Sir Jacob Epstein 1942 p. 193).
154. Apollonius Tyanaeus, Greek Thinker and Traveler. 1st Century AD, said:
"In
155. Mr. Thorton, in his book History of British India, observed:
"the Hindus are indisputably entitled to rank among the most ancient of existing nations, as well as among those most early and most rapidly civilized ...ere yet the Pyramids looked down upon the Valley of the Nile.. when
156 Professor Eugene Burnouf (1801-1852) in his Discourse on Sanskrit and Its Literature, given at the
" We will study
(source: Discourse on Sanskrit and Its Literature - By Eugene Burnouf).
157. Sri Sri
"Hinduism is not a religion; it is just a way of life that thousands of Rishis have written about. It is such a democratic religion where everybody has the freedom to think, write or say whatever they want. We have no opposition for any other philosophy coming into us. We have no opposition for the Bible to be part of our own study. Nobody here will say, 'If you read the Bible, you will go to hell'. It is an inclusive way of looking at life, and that is what we need in the world today. We have no objection taking food from every part of the world, listening to music from every part of the world. So we need to globalize wisdom too."
(source: Re-establish The Human Values, Globalize The Knowledge).
He explains that Hindu astrology has a very ancient lineage. Ten thousand years ago the Rig-Veda saw the earth as round and the sun was at the center and all the planets revolved around it. The West is thus committing an injustice by not giving Indian astronomy and astrology due credit.
"Indian astronomers had calculated that life started 1 billion, 955 million, 818 thousand and 501 years ago and that 28 cycles of yugas have already happened."
"The ancient sages knew these facts. This is why they devised the mala (necklace) with 108 beads, which stand for the 12 constellations and the nine planets and the 108 different permutations which affect one's life." Everything is this universe is interconnected."
(source: It was all in our stars - By Francois Gautier - Indian Express October 23, 2000).
For more on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar refer to chapter on Glimpses XI
158. Hu Shih (1891-1962), Chinese philosopher in Republican China. He promoted vernacular literature to replace writing in the classical style. He was ambassador to the
"
"Never before had
(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal p. 338)
159. Professor Vere Gordon Childe (1892 -1957) one of archeology's few very great synthesizers writes:
"It would be absurd to suggest that any two tribes living, say, in Greece and India, and speaking quite unconnected dialects, on reaching the same level of development should have hit upon such similar words for "father," "fall," and "five" and inflected them in such similar ways as the Vedic Indians and the Homeric Greeks did in fact do.
The primitive culture must be the stage of development reached by several peoples while living sufficiently close together to communicate."
(source: The European Inheritance 1: 84)
160. Frederich von Schlegel (1772-1829), German philosopher, critic, and writer, the most prominent founder of German Romanticism. Educated in law, he turned to writing. His brother, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, was a scholar and poet. With his brother, August Wilhelm, he published the Athenaeum, the principal organ of the romantic school. He was so impressed with Indic spirituality that he declared:
" When one considers the sublime disposition underlying the truly universal education (of traditional
(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 276).
“The Indians
possessed a knowledge of the true God, conceived and expressed in noble, clear
and grand language…Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the
idealization of reason, as set forth by the Greeks, appears in comparison with
the abundant light and vigor of oriental idealism, like a feeble spark in the
full flood of the noonday sun.”
(source: Hinduism Invades America New York City
Schlegel study of Sanskrit and of Indian
civilization, On the Language and
Wisdom of India (1808), was outstanding.He said that, " There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the clarity and the philosophical precision of Sanskrit," adding that:
"
(source: Arise, O India - By Francois Gautier ISBN 81-241-0518-9 Har-Anand Publications 2000. p. 25 ).
He wrote to his friend and comrade, the poet Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853): "Here is the actual source of all languages, all the thoughts and poems of the human spirit; everything, everything without exception comes from
(source: On Hinduism Reviews and Reflections - By Ram Swarup p. 105 and The Aryan Hoax: That Dupes The Indians - By Paramesh Choudhary p. 109).
Schelegel speaks of the noble, clear and severely grand accents of Indian thought. He wrote in his book, Indian Languages, Literature and Philosophy, p. 471:
"The divine origin of man, as taught by 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 European, 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 flood of heavenly glory of the noonday sun, faltering and feeble and ever ready to be extinguished."
(source: India And Her People - By Swami Abhedananda - p.23-24)
Schegel spoke for his generation when he wrote that:
"In
(source: Oriental Enlightenment: The encounter between Asian and Western thought - By J. J. Clarke p.65).
"
"The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was indigenous to
"Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the idealism of reason, as is set forth by Greek philosophers, appears in comparison with the abundant light and vigor of Oriental idealism like a feeble promethean spark in the full flood of heavenly glory of the noonday sun - faltering and feeble and ever ready to be extinguished."
(source: Lectures on the history of literature: ancient and modern p. 126 and Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 276 - 280).
161. Eduard Roeer (1805-1866) German Indologist, born in Braunschweig
In a letter to Albrecht Weber, he wrote, " Although the philological frame is very important, it is the philosophy of the Hindus which interests me most in Sanskrit literature and it has been my chief aim to bring about a better understanding of the same."
Roeer called the Upanishads, "sublime emanations of the Human mind" and Shankara's commentary "a shining example of comprehensive erudition, patient research and philosophical acumen of the ancient Hindus".
(source: German Indologists: Biographies of Scholars in Indian Studies writing in German - By Valentine Stache-Rosen. p.5 - 6)
162 Arthur Koestler, (1905-1983) Hungarian-born British novelist, journalist, and critic. He is best known for his novel Darkness at Noon and The Lotus and the Robot, in which he examines Eastern mysticism and wrote:
"
"The greatest influence during the dark ages was Augustine, who was influenced by Plotinus, who was influenced by Indian mysticism.
"Long before Aldous Huxley found Yoga a remedy for our Brave New World, Schopenhauer called the Upanishads the consolation of his life."
(source: Richer by Asia - By Edmond Taylor, p. 7)
163. Jean Herbert (1897- ) famous Indianist, author of several books including Ganesha, précédé d'une étude sur Dieu chez les Hindous, Spiritualité hindoue, An Introduction To Asia and Vedantisme et vie pratique et autre études.
He reminds us that:
"Many many centuries before us,
"They contained, at least in its essence, the philosophy of the Greeks, the Alexandrine mystique, the religious speculation of the Middle Ages, the rationalism, of the XIXth century and even the most recent incarnations of modern pantheism."
(source: Arise O' India - By Francois Gautier Har-Anand publications. p. 25)
164. The Fourth Caliph, Ali bin Abi Talib (656 - 661 A.D.) had remarked:
" The land where books were first written and from where wisdom and knowledge sprang is
(Note: Many Islamic traditions support the high standing of Indian culture with the Arabs. This shows the affection and respect of early Muslims had for
(source: Hindu Muslim Cultural Accord - By Syed Mohamud
165. Edmond Taylor ( ? ) author of Richer By Asia has said:
"The sophisticated philosophies of the East (
"The underlying mood of Hinduism is one of joyous acceptance of the universe." It is more richly endowed with gods and goddesses and all the trappings of mythology than even the religion of ancient
"More than any other religion, Hinduism hangs upon the concept of wholeness, and the perception of wholeness to the Hindu mind is the most joyous of all human experiences."
"the convictions of the unity and orderliness of the universe is so strong in the devout Hindu that nothing can shake it."
"Popular Hinduism, it is true, is more richly endowed with gods and goddesses and all the trappings of mythology than even the religion of ancient Greece, and this imaginative exuberance is certainly connected with the pantheist emotional mood, but it seems to be more a by-product than an integral feature of it."
"The Higher Hindu sages have always dispensed with all this objective paraphernalia while retaining their pantheist hearts."
"The emotional root of animism in Hindu village worship seemed to me to lie in a heightened sense of reality rather than in unreality, in the use of marvel to express the marvelous ness of simple reality in creating magical beings to explain the magic feel of normal experience."
(source: Richer by Asia - By Edmond Taylor p. 297- 300)
166. Charles Seife ( ? ) a journalist with Science magazine, has also written for New Scientist, Scientific American, The Economist, Science, Wired UK, The Sciences, and numerous other publications. He holds an M.S. in mathematics from Yale University and his areas of research include probability theory and artificial intelligence.
He is a mathematician and science writer, author of Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, says:
"Perhaps no one has embraced nothing as strongly as the Indians who, Seife notes,
"never had a fear of the infinite or of the void." Hinduism has embedded within it, a complex philosophy of nothingness, seeing everything in the world as arising from the pregnant void, known as Sunya."
The ultimate goal of the Hindu was to free himself from the endless cycle of pain found in continual reincarnation and reconnect with the Nothingness that is the source and fundament of the All. For Indians, the void of Sunya was the very font of all potential; nothingness was liberation. No surprise then that it is from this sophisticated culture that we inherit the mathematical analog of nothing, zero. Like Sunya, zero is a kind of place holder, a symbol signifying a pregnant space where any other number might potentially reside."
(source: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea: It's weird, it's counterintuitive and the Greeks hated it. Why did the Church reject the use of zero? - http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Books-X!ArticleDetail-26133,00.html
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2000/03/03/seife/index.html).
167. Bhagwan S. Gidwani ( ? ) author of The Return of the Aryans, has correctly shows that Hinduism is based on supremacy of conduct, and not creed. His view also is simple and forthright --that Hinduism is the one religion that honors and respects human rights. Most other religions consign non-believers to hell, everlasting. Hinduism has room for non-believers, agnostics and atheists. What Hinduism seeks is purity of conduct, and not creed
In 'The Return of the Aryans' he clarifies that Bharat who composed the Song of the Hindu, was the 19th Karkarta (Elected Supreme Chief) of the Hindu clan from 5,106 BC. He retired as a hermit at the age of sixty. Long after he retired, the name Bharat Varsha was given to the country to honor his memory.
The book
unfolds the drama of the birth and
beginnings of Hinduism prior to 8,000 BC, and its early roots of Sanatana
Dharma and Sanatanah. It also tells the story of how in 5,000 BC, the Aryans originated from India, and why
they moved out of their homeland; their trials and triumphs, battles and
bloodshed, adventures and exploits in Europe and elsewhere, including Russian
Lands, Finland, Lithuania, Scandinavia, Italy, Greece and Germany; and finally
their return to the home-town and
heritage of Bharat Varsha.
The
Song of the Hindu
"Our
desires have grown immeasurable. But they should be desires to give, not merely
to receive, to accept and not to reject; to honour and respect, not to deny or
belittle...
"God's gracious purpose includes
all human beings and all creation"
"For God is the Creator; and God is the Creation... "Each man has his own stepping stones to reach the One-Supreme..."God's grace is withdrawn from no one; not even from those who have chosen to withdraw from God's grace..."How does it matter what idols they worship, or what images they bow to, so long as the conduct remains pure…"It is conduct then - theirs and ours - that needs to be purified.
"For God is the Creator; and God is the Creation... "Each man has his own stepping stones to reach the One-Supreme..."God's grace is withdrawn from no one; not even from those who have chosen to withdraw from God's grace..."How does it matter what idols they worship, or what images they bow to, so long as the conduct remains pure…"It is conduct then - theirs and ours - that needs to be purified.
"There can be no compulsion; each
man must be free to worship his gods as he chooses...
"Does every Hindu worship all the
gods of all the Hindus? No, he has a free will; a free choice" A Hindu may
worship Agni (fire), and ignore other deities. Do we deny that he is a Hindu?
..."Another may worship God,
through an idol of his choosing. Do we deny that he is a Hindu?. "Yet
another will find God everywhere and not in any image or idol. Is he not a
Hindu?..."He who was Karkarta before me was a Sun-worshiper. Did the
worshipers of Siva ever say that he was not a good Hindu? ..."Do the
worshipers of Vishnu feel that he who worships before the image of Brahma is
not a Hindu?...
"How
can a scheme of salvation be limited to a single view of God's nature and
worship? "Is then God, not an all-loving Universal God?..."Clearly
then, he who seeks to deny protection to another on the basis of his faith,
offends against the Hindu way of life, and denies an all-loving God...
"Those who love their own sects, idols and images more than Truth, will
end up by loving themselves more than their gods.." He who seeks to
convert another to his own faith, offends against his own soul and the will of
God and the law of humanity..."In the Kingdom of God, there is no higher
nor lower. The passion for perfection burns equally in all, for there is only
one class even as there is only one God..."The Hindu way of life?...
Always it has been and always it shall be...that God wills a rich harmony - not
a colorless uniformity..."A Hindu must enlarge the heritage of
mankind "For a Hindu is not a mere
preserver of custom. "For a Hindu is not a mere protector of present
knowledge...
"Hinduism
is a movement, not a position; a growing tradition and not a fixed
revelation..."A Hindu must grow and evolve, with all that was good in the past, with all that is good
in the present, and with all goodness that future ages shall bring. "Yet
he remains a Hindu."
"Hinduism
is the law of life, not a dogma; its aim is not to create a creed but
character, and its goal is to achieve perfection through most varied spiritual
knowledge which rejects nothing, and yet refines everything, through continuous
testing and experiencing..."
"Yet he must remain strong and united, for a Hindu must know that not an external, outside force can ever crush him, except when he is divided and betrays his own..."What then is the final goal of the Hindu? Through strength, unity, discipline, selfless work, to reach the ultimate in being, ultimate in awareness and ultimate in bliss, not for himself alone, but for all..."This was the silent pledge that our ancient ancestors had taken, when they called themselves the Hindu…"If I cannot abide by that pledge, how can I retain the right to call myself a Hindu?"
Gidwani meets another issue headlong, and demonstrates clearly that caste system was never a tenet of the Hindu faith. Tracing the development of caste system, he shows that it is in fact antagonistic to the Hindu religion, and its ideals.
(source: The Return of the Aryans - By B S Gidwani p. 65 & 82-83. For more quotes by Gidwani, please refer to the chapter Introduction to Hinduism. For information on the caste system, refer to chapter on Caste System).
For the Song of the Hindu refer to Sindhulogy.org
- http://www.sindhulogy.org/index.aspx?page=Content/Music.
168. Roger-Pol Droit ( ? ) French philosopher and journalist has
remarked that the philosophy of the Vedas and spirituality, seems to
disappeared from the consciousness of Europeans and the references to the
Indian culture after the collapse of Nietzsche. Since then, Europe has
practiced what he calls "helleno-centrism" (Greece-centered)
education, which means that the West believes that all philosophical systems
started with In his remarkable book, L'oubli de l"Inde : une amnâesie philosophique (The forgetting of
In
(source: Arise O' India - By Francois Gautier p. 26 and The Genius of India - By Guy Sorman - Macmillan India Ltd. 2001. ISBN 0333 93600 0 back cover)
169. Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) aide-de-camp to George Washington and first secretary of the Treasury, epitomized this attitude in these words:
"When we read in the valuable production of those great Oriental scholars...those of a Jones, a Wilkings, a Colebrooke, or a Halhed, - we uniformly discover in the Hindus a nation, whose polished manners are the result of a mild disposition and an extensive benevolence."
(source: The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar p. 17)
170. Professor Arthur Holmes (1895 -1965) geologist, professor at the
"Long before it became a scientific aspiration to estimate the age of the earth, many elaborate systems of the world chronology had been devised by the sages of antiquity. The most remarkable of these occult time-scales is that of the ancient Hindus, whose astonishing concept of the Earth's duration has been traced back to Manusmriti, a sacred book."
(source: Hinduism and Scientific Quest - By T. R. R. Iyengar p. 20).
171. J. Ovington ( ? ) Chaplain to the British King, the seventeenth-century English traveler, wrote in his A Voyage to Surat in the Year 1689, that:
" Of all the regions of the Earth (
(source: Indian Vegetarian Cookery - By Jack
172. Sir Thomas Munro (1761-1827) held various posts in the colonial administration of
"If a good system of agriculture, unrivalled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to convenience or luxury, schools established in every village for teaching, reading, writing and arithmetic; the general practice of hospitality and charity among each other; and above all, a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, respect, and delicacy, (if all these) are among the signs which denote a civilized people, then the Hindus, are not inferior to the nations of Europe; and if civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India, I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo."
(source: India in Bondage: Her Right to Freedom - By Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland p.324-325) and The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar p. 17).
173.
" What we generally fail to realize is that in talking today to the Indians we are face to face with the direct descendants, as often as not, of people who were contemporaries of Ancient Egypt, and whose present culture, in most of its main essentials, is nearly the same as it was then, and is in any event directly descended from that age, and even possibly before it."
(source: China, India and the Ruins of Washington - By Austin Coates p- 20)
174. Kanchan Gupta ( ?) Political commentator for the English language media. He has observed that:
" One of the great strengths of Hinduism is that it is not an organized religion rigidly structured on verse and chapter of a single holy book. Hinduism accommodates in its fold both believers and non-believers, iconoclasts and idol-worshippers, liberals and conservatives. It is at once amorphous and intense, reverent and irreverent, ancient and modern.
It is this strength that makes Hinduism a living religion, a life-sustaining experience. "
(source: Hindu tele-evangelists - By Kanchan Gupta - Sunday Pioneer Date: December 5, 2004).
175. Sa`Id Al-Andalusi (1029 -1070) Islamic scholar, who was a prolific author and in the powerful position of a judge for the king in Muslim Spain. He focused on
He wrote Kitab Tabaqat al-Uman or "Book of the Categories of Nations," which recorded the contributions to science of all known nations. He has said:
"The Indians among all nations, through many centuries and since antiquity, have been the source of wisdom, fairness and moderation. They are creators of sublime thoughts, universal apologues, rare inventions and remarkable concepts."
"... They referred to the king of
"The Indians, known to all nations for many centuries, are the metal [essence] of wisdom, the source of fairness and objectivity. They are people of sublime pensiveness, universal apologues, and useful and rare inventions."
“The first nation (to have cultivated science) is
“The Indians, as known to all nations for many centuries, are the metal (essence) of wisdom, the source of fairness and objectivity. They are peoples of sublime pensiveness, universal apologues, and useful and rare inventions.”
“To their credit, the Indians have made great strides in the study of numbers and of geometry. They have acquired immense information and reached the zenith in their knowledge of the movements of the stars (astronomy) and the secrets of the skies (astrology) as well as other mathematical studies. After all that, they have surpassed all the other peoples in their knowledge of medical science and the strengths of various drugs, the characteristics of compounds and the peculiarities of substances [chemistry].”
“Their kings are known for their good moral principles, their wise decisions, and their perfect methods of exercising authority.”
“What has reached us from the work of the Indians in music is the book… [that] contains the fundamentals of modes and the basics in the construction of melodies.”
“That which has reached us from the discoveries of their clear thinking and the marvels of their inventions is the (game) of chess. The Indians have, in the construction of its cells, its double numbers, its symbols and secrets, reached the forefront of knowledge. They have extracted its mysteries from supernatural forces. While the game is being played and its pieces are being maneuvered, there appear the beauty of structure and the greatness of harmony. It demonstrates the manifestation of high intentions and noble deeds, as it provides various forms of warnings from enemies and points out ruses as well as ways to avoid dangers. And in this, there is considerable gain and useful profit.”
(source: The Categories of Nations - By Said al-Andalusi. A translation was published by
(source: How 'Gandhara' became 'Kandahar' - By Rajiv Malhotra and The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Volume I – Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries - By Andre Wink.
176. Gustav Oppert (1836-1908) born in
" I venture to suggest that the inhabitants of this country would do well if they were to assume the ancient, honorable, and national name of Bharata, remembering that
(source: German Indologists: Biographies of Scholars in Indian Studies writing in German - By Valentine Stache-Rosen p.81-82).
177. Shri V. Shankar ( ? ) ICS (Retd.) former Defense Secretary and earlier Private Secretary to the late Sardar Patel.
" It is nothing short of a miracle that the Hindu society and Hindu Dharma have survived so long in spite of repeated aggressions. The secret of our continued existence lies in the fact that our culture has the requisite vitality to influence and absorb outside elements." “
178. Vincent Arthur Smith (1848 - 1920) British historian, and author of The Oxford History of India, says:
"
"Hinduism has never produced an exclusive, dominant, orthodox sect, with a formula of faith to be professed or rejected under pain of damnation."
(source: Essays on National Idealism - By Ananda K. Coomaraswamy p. 131).
Regarding astronomy, he wrote:
"The most systematic record of Indian Historical tradition is that preserved in the dynastic lists of the Puranas, five out of the eighteen works of this class, namely the Vayu, Matsya, Vishnu, Bramhanda and Bhagvata contain such lists. The Brahmanda and the Vayu as well as the Matsya, which has large later additions, appear to be the earliest and most authoratative."
(source: Hinduism in the Space Age - by
179. Richard Bernstein ( ? ) a former New York Times correspondent in
On a visit to
"It is a religion which encourages people to look into themselves for truth as the goal of life rather than to get rich or to acquire power." As evidence of this, Bernstein compared the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram to the Pope, who, he said, holds a comparable spiritual position in Roman Catholicism. Yet, "their appearance to the world is utterly, utterly different", he said. "One is surrounded by the trappings of splendor -- vast cathedrals and palaces and fabulous museums full of zillion-dollar paintings and sculptures... and all the trappings of power. I couldn't show up in
"One of the elements of
(source: Rediff.com - Down The Road With Huien Tsang - http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/may/23usspec.htm)
180. Dr. Ernest Binfield Havell (1861-1934) principal to the Madras College of Art in the 1890s and left as principal of the Calcutta College of Art some 20 years later. He wrote several books, including his book, Indian Architecture - Its Psychology, Structure and History from the First Mohammedan Invasion to the Present Day. He has said:
"
(source: The History of Aryan Rule in India - E. B. Havell).
"In
(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press. 1995. p. 182).
"It was
(source: The History of Aryan Rule in India - E. B. Havell)
Comparing the European and Hindu art, E. B. Havell says:
"European art has, as it were its wings clipped: it knows only the beauty of earthly things. Indian art, soaring into the highest empyrean, is ever trying to bring down to earth something of the beauty of the things above."
Just as angels are given wings, or saints halos, or just as the Holy Spirit was portrayed as a dove, so Shiva or Vishnu were given extra arms to hold the symbols of their various attributes, or extra heads for their different roles. Havell showed how consummately the Indian artist could handle movement. Taking the example of the famous Nataraja (dancing Shiva) bronzes of south
"Taking the example of the famous Nataraja (dancing Shiva) bronzes of south
Says Havell:
“The design of the Kailasa remained,
for all time, the perfect model of a Shivalinga, - the temple craftsman’s
vision of Shiva’s wondrous palace in his Himalayan glacier, where in his Yogi’s
cell the Lord of the Universe, the great magician, controls the cosmic forces
by the power of thought; the holy rivers, creating the life in the world below,
enshrined in His matted locks; Parvati, His other Self, the Universal Mother,
watching by His side.”
(source: Indian Sculpture and Painting - By Ernest Binfield Havell Elibron
Classics reprint. Paperback. New. Based on 1908 edition by John Murray, 181 Ram Swarup (1920-1998) a foremost spokesperson of Hindu spirituality and culture in
He has observed:
"Hindu dharma was a great reconciler. It reconciled various viewpoints, various doctrines. It knew how to look at things from various angles and viewpoints. It knew no conflict between science and religion, between rationalism and spiritualism. It was so because it was not dogmatic in reason or religion.
"Hinduism was organized for peaceful and harmonious co-existence, not for continued confrontation with external enemies in the shape of unbelievers. It is no accident of history that though Hinduism knew internal feuds like any social polity, it never crossed its borders to wage wars against people simply because they worshipped different Gods. Organized on such non-military principles, there is no wonder that Hinduism did not even have a name for itself. "
"In Sanatana Dharma, there is no single life, no single judgment, or eternal punishment. There is more than one life and of course, there is no single judgment. In fact, there is no judgment at all as such, for the idea is to help and to judge and condemn. The inner dynamics of incarnation is not reward or punishment but self-improvement, and ultimately self-discovery and self-recovery, moksha."
"Many countries lost all memory of their past but
(source: On Hinduism Reviews and Reflections - By Ram Swarup p 1 - 46).
182. Rene Grousset (1885-1952) French art historian. Author of several books including Civilization of India and The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia.
He gives a fine interpretation of the image of Nataraja:
“Whether he be surrounded or not by the
flaming aureole of the Tiruvasi (Pabhamandala) – the circle of the world which
he both fills and oversteps – the King of the Dance is all rhythm and
exaltation. The tambourine which he sounds with one of his right hands draws
all creatures into this rhythmic motion and they dance in his company. The
conventionalized locks of flying hair and the blown scarfs tell of the speed of
this universal movement, which crystallizes matter and reduces it to powder in
turn. One of his left hands holds the fire which animates and devours the
worlds in this cosmic whirl. One of the God’s feet is crushing a Titan, for
“this dance is danced upon the bodies of the dead”, yet one of the right hands
is making a gesture of reassurance (abhayamudra), so true it is that, seen from
the cosmic point of view…the very cruelty of this universal determinism is
kindly, as the generative principle of the future. And, indeed, on more than
one of our bronzes the King of the Dance wears a broad smile. He smiles at
death and at life, at pain and at joy, alike, or rather,..his smile is death
and life, both joy and pain
From this
lofty point of view, in fact, all things fall into their place, finding their
explanation and logical compulsion. Here art is the faithful interpreter of a
philosophical concept. The
plastic beauty of the rhythm is no more than the expression of an ideal rhythm.
The very multiplicity of arms, puzzling as it may seem at first sight, is
subject in turn to an inward law, each pair remaining a model of elegance in
itself, so that the whole being of the Nataraja thrills with a magnificent
harmony in his terrible joy. And as though to stress the point that the dance
of the divine actor is indeed a sport, (lila) – the sport of life and death,
the sport of creation and destruction, at once infinite and purposeless – the
first of the left hands hangs limply from the arm in the careless gesture of
the gajahasta (hand as the elephant’s trunk). And lastly, as we look at the
back view of the statue, are not the steadiness of these shoulders which uphold
world, and the majesty of this Jove-like torso, as it were a symbol of the
stability and immutability of substance, while the gyration of the legs in its
dizzy speed would seem to symbolize the vortex of phenomena.”
(source: The Civilization of the East – India
He speaks of the Trimurti statue at Elephanta Caves
"Universal
art has succeeded in few materialization of the Divine as powerful and also as
balanced. He believed that
it is "the greatest representation of the pantheistic god created by the
hands of man." He concludes with poetic enthusiasm: "Never have the overflowing sap of life, the pride of force superior to everything, the secret intoxication of the inner god of things been so serenely expressed."
(source: The India I Love - By Marie-Simone Renou p. 88-93).
In the words of Rene Grousset, " The three countenances of the one being are here harmonized without a trace of effort. There are few material representations of the divine principle at once as powerful and as well balanced as this in the art of the whole world. Nay, more, here we have undoubtedly the grandest representation of the pantheistic God ever made by the hand of man...Indeed, never have the exuberant vigor of life, the tumult of universal joy expressing itself in ordered harmony, the pride of a power superior to any other, and the secret exaltation of the divinity immanent in all things found such serenely expressed."
(source: The Civilization of the East –
In its Olympian majesty, the Mahesamurti of Elephanta is worthy of comparison with the Zeus of Mylasa or the Asklepios of Melos."
(source: Civilizations of the East - By Rene Grousset Vol. II, p. 245-246)
He writes about the Indian influence in South East Asia: "In the high plateau of eastern Iran, in the oases of Serindia, in the arid wastes of Tibet, Mongolia, and Manchuria, in the ancient civilized lands of China and Japan, in the lands of the primitive Mons and Khmers and other tribes of Indo-China, in the countries of the Malaya-Polynesians, in Indonesia and Malay, India left the indelible impress of her high culture, not only upon religion, but also upon art, and literature, in a word, all the higher things of spirit."
"There is an obstinate prejudice thanks to which India is constantly represented as having lived, as it were, hermetically sealed up in its age-old civilization, apart from the rest of Asia. Nothing could be more exaggerated. During the first eight centuries of our era, so far as religion and art are concerned, central
(for more on Greater India refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi source: Civilizations of the East - By Rene Grousset Vol. II, Chapter - Farther India and the Malay Archipelago p. 275-343).
183. George Harrison (1943-2001) former Beatle and rocker, who was the impetus for the group's spiritual quest of the 1960s which brought them to
One reason he became interested in
(source: rediff.com 12/01/01).
Harrison became deeply interested in
(source: BBC News.com).
His real interest remained Indian spirituality. In 1976, he told me that the most influential book he had ever read was Yogananda Paramahansa’s Autobiography of a Yogi. “None of this will last,” he repeated. “In the end, there’s only God-consciousness.”
(source: He was keener on God than on rock - By Vir Sanghvi Hindustan Times 12/1/01).
George Harrison "Beatle yogi" who linked Western pop to the strains of the sitar, would have liked himself to be remembered as the man who spread the message of Indian spirituality to the decadent West.
(source: Hindustan Times 12/01/01).
George Harrison, the 'Quiet Beatle' was the most Indian of the quartet. It was his spiritual yearning that brought the Fab Four to the banks of the
(source: George Harrison: The India connection - By Times of India 12/1/01).
At a time before Westerners were flocking to yoga classes,
n 1973, he came up with a neatly arranged album aptly titled, Living in the Material World. The songs reflect the Hindu view of the world and a culmination of his quest for self-realisation. The song, The Art of Dying for instance, deals with the philosophy of Karma and reincarnation. He even inculcated in himself the orthodox-Hindu way of life by waking up at the crack of dawn, bathe in cold water and study Bhagvad-Gita.
(source: Living in a yellow submarine - Dailypioneer.com).
He passed away to the sonorous tone of Hare Krishna chants. He was a lifelong follower of Hinduism and was closely associated with the Hare Krishna movement.
(source: Times of India 12/03/01).
In an Interview,
"I always felt at home with
(please refer to Lyrics for My Sweet Lord, Hare Krsna Mantra and Govinda).
In his album Brainwashed, former Beatle, George Harrison’s answer is “God, God, God” and we eventually get a reading from How To Know God (The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali) and a chant seemingly called Namah Parvati performed along with his son Dhani.
It is the
perfect end to a final album of the man who took the world to the feet of the
Maharishi and became Krishna ’s
most famous devotee. "Namah
Parvati" was appended it as the album's spiritual benediction, a
touching reminder that while musicians come and go, music can truly embody
their spirit forever.
The album is dedicated to the Yogis of Hinduism.
(For more on
George Harrison refer to chapter GlimpsesVI)
184. Dr R. Chidambaram (1936 - ) Principal
Scientific Advisor to the Government of India has said: "Bhagwat
Gita" continues to be the source of inspiration for both Indian and
western scientists and "one sees a thread of similarity in the spiritual
thinking of great scientists like Srinivasa Ramanujan, C V Raman,
Chandrasekhar," He said Bhagwad Gita has influenced the thinking of even many foreign scientiss like Erwin Schrodinger and Robert Oppenheimer.
"I myself have been influenced by the Saivite religious environment in my family and the great intellectual force of Advaita Vedanta," he said.
(source: Hindustan Times 12/22/01).
185. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927) British born writer, and admirer of music composer Richard Wagner. In his major work, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, he extolled the profundity of Indian philosophy and praise of Hindu mysticism.
"Indian thought is unsurpassed in depth and comprehensive many-sidedness."
(source: The Soul of India - By Amaury de Riencourt p 276-279)
186. Christopher W. B. Isherwood (1904-1986) Translator, biographer, novelist, and playwright, he is the author of over twenty books, including Vedanta for the Western World and My Guru and His Disciple - a book about Swami Prabhavananda, who guided Isherwood for some thirty years. During the 1940s his interests turned from Christianity to Hinduism. With his guru Swami Prabhavananda Isherwood translated from the Sanskrit The Bhagavad-Gita and The Yoga Aphorism of Patanjali. Isherwood broke from the strictly chronological format to create a spiritual autobiography wherein the values of Vedanta Hinduism counter his life as a
"I believe the Gita to be one of the major religious documents of the world. If its teachings did not seem to me to agree with those of the other gospels and scriptures, then my own system of values would be thrown into confusion, and I should feel completely bewildered. The Gita is not simply a sermon, but a philosophical treatise."
(source: Living Wisdom: Vedanta in the West - Pravrajika Vrajaprana (Editor) Essay on Gita and the War - By Christopher Isherwood 93-99).
Turning from Christianity to Hinduism In 1943 he became follower of Swami Prabhavananda, producing several works on Indian Vedãnta in the following decades.
187. Dr. D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966) Japanese Buddhist and Zen scholar, who has written several books, including Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture (1938, rev. ed. 1959), An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. He has said:
"The study of Japanese thought is the study of Indian thought."
(source:
188. Rizwan Salim ( ? ) reviewer, New York Tribune, Capitol Hill reporter, Engineering Times, assistant editor, American Sentinel, published in Hindustan Times has wisely observed:
"Given the reality that Hindustan is the longest surviving ancient civilization and Hindus have to their credit so many unaccountable and such astonishing achievements of architecture and painting, music and dance, poetry and drama, epics and narratives, intellectual systems and philosophical doctrines, healing systems and mind-body disciplines, Hindus of every caste and class today should have possessed a well-informed and well-developed, intense and, fully conscious cultural pride.
But one of the principal tragedies of contemporary India is that the majority of even the educated and otherwise affluent Hindus do not possess a deep and extensive knowledge of their culture-and do not give evidence of an intensely felt cultural pride.' Lacking profound cultural knowledge and intense cultural pride,
There are not very many scholars of high ability and international reputation in
"It is clear that
The descendents of those who built the magnificent temples of Bhojpur and Thanjavur, Konark and Kailas, invented mathematics and urban surgery, created mind-body disciplines (yoga) of astonishing power, and built mighty empires would almost certainly have attained technological superiority over Europe."
(source: Need for Cultural pride - Revival - By Rizwan Salim The Hindustan Times 9/20/1998)
189. François-Auguste-René Rodin (1840-1917) French sculptor, who imbued his work with great psychological force, which was expressed largely through texture and modeling. He is regarded as the foremost sculptor of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In a magnificently poetic outburst about the Mahesamurti (Trimurti) of the
"This full, pouting mouth, rich in sensuous expressions, these lips like a lake of pleasure, fringed by the noble, palpitating nostrils."
(source: Civilizations of the East - By Rene Grousset Vol. II, p. 245-246).
Rodin described the statue of Nataraja or King of Dance - as the perfect embodiment of rhythmic movement.
(source: Indian Art - By Vidya Dehejia p. 12). For more refer to chapter on Hindu Art.
He was overwhelmed when he saw the Chola sculptures in 1913.
"There are things that other people do not see: unknown depths, the wellsprings of life," he said.
"There is grace in elegance; above grace, there is modelling; everything is exaggerated; we call it soft but it is most powerfully soft! Words fail me then."
(source: Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India - By Joanna Pitman at the Royal Academy - The Times)
"The descendents of those who built the magnificent temples of Bhojpur and Thanjavur, Konark and Kailas, invented mathematics and urban surgery, created mind-body disciplines (yoga) of astonishing power, and built mighty empires would almost certainly have attained technological superiority over Europe."
190. Gerald James Larson, An American scholar who points out that there are in a manner of speaking almost as many Gitas as there are readers of it and that:
"What the Gita is, finally is inseparable from its many contextual environments, ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, scholarly and popular, corporate and personal, secular and sacred - contextual environments that have emerged in an on-going historical process and will continue to emerge as that historical process unfolds." and he adds:
" An interesting monograph could
be written on the Gita as symptomatic of trends in nineteenth-and
twentieth-century European and American scholarly thought." ( source: The Universal Gita: Western Images of the Bhagavad Gita a Bicentenary Survey - By Eric J. Sharpe p. 14).
191. Dorothea Chaplin mentions in her book, Matter, Myth and Spirit or Keltic and Hindu Links (pp. 168-9),
"Long before the year 460 B.C. in which Hippocrates, the father of European medicine was born, the Hindus had built an extensive pharmacopoeia and had elaborate treatises on a variety of medical and surgical subjects...The Hindus' wonderful knowledge of medicine has for some considerable time led them away from surgical methods as working destruction on the nervous system, which their scientific medical system is able to obliviate, producing a cure even without a preliminary crisis."
(source: Matter, Myth and Spirit or Keltic and Hindu Links - By Dorothea Chaplin p. 168-9).
192. Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969) French explorer, writer, Orientalist and mystic. She had studied Sanskrit and Buddhism at the
"because the images of statues are like a battery which is charged over the ages by the adoration of the devotees, who in turn can draw energy, inspiration, or grace from these statues." She goes on: "As a battery, the energy in the statue will not get discharged, as long as the faithful continue to worship it by their adoration." And she concludes: " Gods are thus created by the energy given out by the faith in their existence."
(source: Arise O' India - By Francois Gautier p. 15).
193 Rev. William Robertson
He could not but praise "the ancient and high civilization of the inhabitants of
(source: The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar p. 17).
194. Professor Rudolph Otto (1869-1937 Was associate professor at Göttingen. Eventually he became a professor of systematic theology, first at Breslau in 1915, then at
(source: Eastern Religions and Western Thought - By Sir Sarvapelli Radhakrishnan. p. 161).
195. Sir John Malcolm (1829-1896) Was the Governor of
"The Hindoo...are distinguished for some of the finest qualities of the mind; they are brave, generous, and humane, and their truth is as remarkable as their courage. "
(source: The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar p. 17)
196. David Frawley ( ? ) also known as Pandit Vamadeva Shastri the American eminent teacher and practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine and Vedic astrology and author of several books, including Arise Arjuna : Hinduism and the modern world and Awaken Bharata: A Call for India's Rebirth - in which the need for a new intelligentsia, "intellectual kshatriya" or intellectual warrior class trained in Vedic dharma, to handle challenges was emphasized.
He writes:
"The Hindu mind represents humanity's oldest and most continuous stream of conscious intelligence on the planet. Hindu sages, seers, saints, yogis and jnanis have maintained an unbroken current of awareness linking humanity with the Divine since the dawn of history, and as carried over from earlier cycles of civilization in previous humanities unknown to our present spiritually limited culture."
"The Hindu mind has a vision of eternity and infinity. It is aware of the vast cycles of creation and destruction that govern the many universes and innumerable creatures within them."
(source: Hinduism and the Clash of Civilizations - By David Frawley p. 12-13).
A Westerner who has sloughed off the Western world view, Frawley looks Eastwards, finding in the ancient Indo-European tradition of the Vedas spiritual nourishment and superior insights into the moral, environmental and political questions faced by all mankind.
He sees in Western monotheism the basis for the present commercial monoculture of "globalisation". That is to say, the singularity and certainty underlying so much of the Judaeo-Christian mindset is finding new and secular outlets. Those who promote Western notions of "democracy" and "human rights" above all other forms of social organisation, who regard "market forces" as all-powerful (surely a modern superstition) and who wish to impose a politically-correct blandness on the world are "secular missionaries" as fanatical as their religious antecedents, if not far more so.
Frawley values the ancient wisdom of the Vedas above the mainstream Judaeo-Christian tradition because the latter has falsely enthroned man over nature. The Vedic tradition, by contrast, is pluralistic and ecologically aware. Frawley, whose native "civilisation" (the
He considers Hinduism to be a religion of the Earth, because, as he describes beautifully:
"…it honors the Earth as the Divine Mother and encourages us to honor her and help her develop her creative potentials. The deities of Hinduism permeate the world of nature…they don't belong to a single country or book only. It is not necessary to live in
"I see Hinduism as a religion eminently suited for all lands and for all people because it requires that we connect with the land and its creatures - that we align our individual self with the soul of all beings around us. Hinduism finds holy places everywhere, wherever there is a river, a mountain, a large rock, or big tree, wherever some unusual natural phenomenon be it a spring, a cave, or a geyser."
"True religion, whether it predominates in the Eastern or Western parts of the world, is not a matter of geography," says Frawley. "All the religions of the world are followed in areas far beyond the geographical locale of their origin. Religion speaks of the ultimate issues of life and death and should orient us to the Eternal and the Universal. In this respect, Hinduism with its universal view has greater relevance for all human beings than any belief system, which divides humanity into believers and non-believers."
(source: The need for a new Indic school of thought and About.com). For more refer to chapter on Nature Worship.
The Indian tradition is pluralistic and has always offered freedom of worshipping the divine in the name and form of one's choice and according to one's individual samskaras. It is pluralistic both at the level of religious practices as well as philosophical teachings. For this reason we find more religions inside Hinduism than among all of the world's religions put together.
Pluralism means freedom. It means that we should accept religious differences as a fact of life, like other natural variations. We need freedom to arrive at the truth. The pursuit of dharma, the urge for self-realization and desire for liberation are common to all paths. Rather than as a cause for confusion, I see Indian pluralism as constructively facilitating an individual's spiritual quest.
(source: Vedacharya from the West - Times of India March 30, 2000).
David Frawley has convincingly argued, the central value of Hinduism is not “tolerance” (as interested parties try to make Hindus believe) but truth.
(source: vis-a-vis Hindu Resurgence - By Koenraad Elst p. 135)
197. Pierre Loti (1850-1923) pseudonym of Louis-marie-julien Viaud, a novelist whose exoticism made him popular in his time and whose themes anticipated some of the central preoccupations of French literature between World Wars. Loti's career as a naval officer took him to the Middle and
He expressed his esteem for
"And now I salute thee with awe, with veneration, and wonder, ancient
(source: Sanskrit Civilization - G. R. Josyer International Academy of Sanskrit Research. p. 1)
198. William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838-1903) Irish historian, essayist, author of The Substance of History of European Morals (From Augustus to Charlemagne).
He quotes an old tradition in
(source: On Hinduism Reviews and Reflections - By Ram Swarup p. 197).
199. Paul Hubert, a French Theosophist, was to write in glowing terms of Charles Wilkins translation the Bhagavad Gita. In his book Histoire de la Bhagavad Gita he said it was one of the 'striking events in the universal history of philosophy'
(source: The Universal Gita: Western Images of the Bhagavad Gita a Bicentenary Survey - By Eric J. Sharpe p. 4)
200. Prince Muhammad Dara Shikoh (1627-1658 AD) the favorite Sufi son of Moghul emperor, Shah Jehan. Known the world over for his unorthodox and liberal views. He was a mystic and a free thinker. Dara Shikoh's most important legacy is the translation of fifty Upanishads, known under the title of Sirr-i-Akbar ("The Great Secret"). It was completed in 1657, together with paraphrases and excerpts from commentaries which in various cases, though by no means throughout, can be traced back to Sankara.
He had learned Sanskrit and studied the Hindu scriptures in the original. He studied the Torah, the Gospels and the Psalms, but it is the "Great Secret" (Sirri-i-Akbar) of the Upanishads which, in his view, represents the most original testimony of the oneness of God or the Absolute.
His personal fate is well-known: in 1659, two years after the completion of the Sirr-i-Akbar, he was executed by order of his brother, Aurangazeb, and with the consent of the Islamic orthodoxy community (Ulama), who claimed that he was a heretic and a danger to the state, the faith and the public order.
(source: India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding - By Wilhelm Halbfass p. 34).
He translated the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Yoga - Vashishta into Persian directly from Sanskrit and called it Sirr-e-Akbar (The Great Mystery). Titled "The Upanishads: God's Most Perfect Revelation" and then into Latin by Anquetil Duperron (1801 and 1802) under the title Oupnekhat, contained about fifty. This translation introduced Western readers to the Upanishads. Schopenhauer's reaction to it is well-known.
The Quran itself, he said, made veiled references to the Upanishads as the "first heavenly book and the fountainhead of the ocean of monotheism."
"After gradual research; I have come to the conclusion that long before all heavenly books, God had revealed to the Hindus, through the Rishis of yore, of whom Brahma was the Chief, His four books of knowledge, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda."
Dara Shikoh, wrote in his Persian translation of the Upanishads.
"After gradual research; I have come to the conclusion that long before all heavenly books, God had revealed to the Hindus, through the Rishis of yore, of whom Brahma was the Chief, His four books of knowledge, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda."
In his Majma al-Bahrain, he sought to reconcile the Sufi theory with the Vedanta.
He was able to affirm that Sufism and Advaita Vedantism (Hinduism) are essentially the same, with a surface difference of terminology.”
And in introduction to this work he says that one finds in Upanishads the concept of tawhid (the doctrine of Unity of God, the most fundamental doctrine of Islam) after the Qur'an and perhaps the Qur'an refers to Upanishad when it refers to Kitab al-Maknun (The Hidden Book). His work Majma`ul Bahrayn (Mingling of the Two Oceans i.e. Hinduism and Islam) is very seminal work in the history of composite culture of
Two years after the completion of the Sirr-i-Akbar, Dara was executed on the orders of his brother - Aurangazeb.
(source: http://ecumene.org/IIS/csss59.htm and dailypioneer.com )
(Continued...)
( My humble Pranam, Honour and also gratefulness to Ms. Sushma Londhe ji for her noble, magnanimous and eminent works on the peerless Wisdom of our Sacred Scriptures)
(My humble salutations to , H H Swamyjis, Hindu Wisdom, great Universal Philosophers, Historians, Professors and Devotees for the discovering collection)
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