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"Some
[ludicrously suggested] that the bhakti element in modern
Hinduism has been derived from [their religion], just as the
ideal of Krishna has been claimed to be taken from [their
religion]; but Krishna's [teachings predate their religion by
thousands of years], and the songs and stories of Krishna were
part of the life of the people too far back to trace their
origin. Bhakti is as old as the heart of man, even in its
definite form in India older than Krishna. It has been the
privilege of the Hindu mind to view the whole through the parts
and in the parts."
Harendranath Maitra 1922There are countless examples of foreign writers who distorted and misrepresented Hindu culture, scriptures and teachings. Some were ignorant, others had their own agenda.Contrast that with a learned writer and researcher interested in finding the truth: "If I were to look over the whole
world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the
wealth, power, and beauty that nature can bestow — in some
parts a very paradise on earth — I should point to India, If I
were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully
developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered
on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of
some of them which well deserve the attention even of those
who have studied Plato and Kant — I should point to India. And
if I were to ask myself from what literature we, here in
Europe ... may draw that corrective which is most wanted in
order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive,
more universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this
life only, but a transfigured and eternal life — again I
should point to India.
... You will find yourselves everywhere in India between an immense past and an immense future, with opportunities such as the old world could but seldom, if ever, offer you. Take any of the burning questions of the day — popular education, higher education, parliamentary representation, codification of laws, finance, emigration, poor-law, and whether you have anything to teach and to try, or anything to observe and to learn, India will supply you with a laboratory such as exists nowhere else. ... Is there not an inward and intellectual world also which has to be studied in its historical development, from the first appearance of predicative and demonstrative roots, their combination and differentiation leading up to the beginning of rational thoughts in its steady progress from the lowest to the highest stages? And in that study of the history of the human mind, in that study of ourselves, of our true selves, India occupies a place second to no other country. Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select for your special study, whether it be Ianguage, or religion, or mythology, or philosophy, whether it be laws or customs, primitive art or primitive science, everywhere, you have to go to India, whether you like it or not, because some of the most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India, and India only." Max Muller 1883 |