Pride of Hinduism - Views of foreigners

[talwan]

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William Butler Yeats (1856-1939) Irish poet and a 1923 Nobel Laureate in Literature. Yeats found Indian ideas of philosophy, art, and religion inspiring and stimulating to such a great extent that a vital part of his career became his assimilating them as well as reproducing them through his own art. Yeats reacted to India with insight, admiration, sympathy and affection. He also met and developed friendships with three Indians, Mohini Chatterji, Rabindranath Tagore, and Shri Purohit Swami (1882 - 1941) at three different stages of his career.

He described his first meeting with a Hindu philosopher at Dublin:

"It was my first meeting with a philosophy that confirmed my vague speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless. "

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

Pride of Hinduism

In Hinduism we have a massive treasure kit, in it we have a number of myths,
legends, biographies, parables, etc and so on. I would like to submit a few
drops in the Ocean.

Mahabharatha even today, it is recognized as the longest epic in the world.
There are many Hindu Scriptures which can be cited to show our undiminished
strength. Bhagavad Gita is one such which teaches the morale everyone in the
world who believe in the Supreme power. We have ancient incomparable age old
Puranas viz. Shiva Puranas, Vishnu Puranas, etc which are legends. With regard
to parables, we have many Pancha Tantra Stories to teach and guide our children
irrespective of their age from their infant stage. Besides, we have examples of
63 Tamil Saivaite Saints who dedicated their life, depicting their exemplary devotion to GOD
and lived an example to show us as how to proceed our life to reach the destination
of GOD. These 63 Tamil Saivaite Saints were affectionately called as Nayanars we
still remember them and celebrate the festival in their honour. If we proceed further
and trace our hindu history, we will find Thiruvilaidayals of Lord Shiva. It consists,
if I am correct, around 64 or so stories of Lord Shiva's appearance in the presence
of common people to educate us as to how one to proceed and conduct the life journey.
Yet another example, is Kannappa Nayayar. His name itself represents "Father of Eye".
According to his family, he is known as Thinnappan or so. This is truthful experience
of donating the eye to Lord Shiva, as a prelude to the present day generation,
of saintly act of devotion to GOD. He is also known as a Nayanar.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[talwan]

Stephen P. Huyler ( ? ) art historian, cultural anthropologist, curator at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler gallery, in his book Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion defines Hinduism:

" Hinduism is a religion of individuality'. Both good and evil are believed to be of God, and the purpose of most rituals is to maintain a balance between such opposites: creation and destruction, light and dark, masculine and feminine. All Hindus believe that the Absolute is the pure blend of opposites, neither masculine nor feminine. For the Hindu, as every aspect of existence has a purpose, human meaning involves a fundamental sense of duty and of conscientious accountability. All individuals are considered part of the greater whole, which functions well only when each person fulfills his or her obligations. The focus and means of worship are many, but the process has a common thread. It acknowledges one of the fundamental principles of Hinduism. God is a universal force, indivisible and yet infinitely divisible, the one and the many, the perfect mixture of all facets of existence." [SUP]

" [/SUP]Hinduism is a religion of strength, vitality, innovation, and balance."

"For the average Hindu, the Divine is personal and approachable. God is universal force, indivisible, and yet infinitely divisible, the one and the many, the perfect mixture of all facets of existence."
"Many Hindu texts state that the Absolute, Brahman, is pure sound."
"Hinduism is often said to be a religion of millions of Gods, and it is indeed a religion of diversity. But it is essential to understand that underlying all is the belief in the unity in one great God: the Absolute, often known as Brahman. Some Hindus believe that this Absolute is formless, a supreme cosmic force that cannot be completely known by humankind. Hindu philosophers state that existence as we know it is an illusion. The universe is relative, ever changing, whereas its source, the Absolute, is the only permanent thing, never changing. To truly reach the Divine we must divest ourselves of all physical attachments and open our minds and spirit to the great void."
(source: Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion - By Stephen P Huyler p. 28 -56 ).

 

[talwan]

Roger Garaudy ( ? ) aMuslim philosopher says:"The Bhagavad-Gita is a rich message, directed toward the human being, showing him the path for his actions, in order to establish a divine society on earth."

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

We all know that Hinduism is the very oldest ancient religion. It has a large number
of scriptures, which are read and appreciated by all foreigners. It can be termed as
more as a way of life than a religion, to be more specific, owing to its sound background
and purely based on Vedas, i.e. the ancient scriptures.

Hinduism is quite very, rather totally, flexible and does not compel somebody to do something, by
using force or threats. It almost allows everyone complete freedom and gives full independence
to worship any God of their choice, which is called Ishta Deivam besides their Kula (Family) Deivam.
This is complemented by many foreigners.

Image worship being a noble one, temples were constructed by Kings or God Believers in olden times,
consecrated idols of God. The structures of temples and sculptural techniques of God in stone or wood,
shaping clay idols, making metal casts, etc are well appreciated by foreigners and some have said
they see the life in the form of Idol that is installed in the Temples.

Foreigners too have appreciated the environment of the Temples and worships performed with
faith and devotion. Some have enjoyed the worships and meditation in the temple premises as
the same generates peace and joy in their minds. Festivals are one such occasion to bring everyone
together and unitedly work for the occasion, which indirectly develops communal harmony and
community prosperity amongst Hindus. Hinduism respects all religions which believe in GOD.
Rituals and Recitations from the Vedas are learnt by the foreigners too because of its preciousness
and value. ISCON in India is an example to this effect. In Hinduism, one more great thing is
women also enjoy equal freedom to do all activities in the temple premises, including offering
Pujas. This is one such thing appreciated by some of the foreigners. Woman is treated
as Shakthi, i.e. Lord Parameswara has Shakthi on his left side and he is known as Ardhanareeswarar.
Above all, one important and valuable thing is, a girl as a child is protected by her Father until her
childhood till she gets wed, then the Husband takes the role of her protector in her youth and middle
aged days, and finally the Sons take the responsibility of protecting her in her old age. Thus a woman
is respected at all stages in Hinduism and is not left unprotected, except one or odd cases.

Balasubramanian
Ambattir

 

[talwan]

Octovio Paz (1914-1998) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990. He served as Mexico's ambassador to India from 1962 until 1968. This is what he says about Hindu art in his book In Light of India: "The Hindu genius is a love for abstraction and, at the same time, a passion for the concrete image. At times it is rich, at others prolix. It has created the most lucid and the most instinctive art. It is abstract and realistic, sexual and intellectual, pedantic and sublime. It lives between extremes, it embraces the extremes, rooted in the earth and drawn to an invisible beyond."
(source: In Light of India - By Octavio Paz p. 185).

 

[talwan]

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Trappist monk, poet, social critic and author of many books, including Seeds of Contemplation, Life and Holiness, Mystics and Zen Masters. Merton, in his book Thoughts on the East talks about the living importance of the Bhagavad-Gita:
"It brings to the West a salutary reminder that our highly activistic and one-sided culture is faced with a crisis that may end in self-destruction because it lacks the inner depth of an authentic metaphysical consciousness. Without such depth, our moral and political protestations are just so verbiage. If, in the West, God can no longer be experienced as other than "dead", it is because of an inner split and self-alienation which have characterized the Western mind in its single-minded dedication to only the half of life: that which is exterior, objective and quantitative."

 

[talwan]

J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda) ( ? ) World renowned as a singer, composer, and lecturer, founder of the Ananda Village is perhaps the most successful intentional community in the world. In his book " The Hindu Way of Awakening: Its Revelation, Its Symbols" says: "Hinduism, in its plethora of symbols and images, is endlessly complex and therefore endlessly misunderstood, but its true mission is both simple and universal: soul enlightenment. The way to understand this mission is to realize that it is goal-oriented, not way-oriented. In other words, its focus is the ultimate attainment, Self-realization."
For even today, thousands of years since they were were first expounded by the ancient rishis (spiritual sages), the religious teachings of India nourish what continues to be the most spiritually grounded civilization in the world."
"Ancient rishis made claims so cosmic that even modern physics seems only to be catching up with them and realizing after every scientific breakthrough, that the ancients were there long before them! Even as recently as a century ago, the West was still reeling under the impact of the discovery of geologists that the earth was formed eons ago, and not in 4004 BC. as theologians had determined.

" India, has accomplished in the field of spirituality what, in the world of finance, the free market (as opposed to a controlled economy) has succeeded in doing: The individual seeker has been left free to explore and develop his own spiritual potentials. Other scriptures have hinted at the deeper truths of inward religion. But the priests in every religion seldom quote those passages, which they rightly see as threatening to their institutional preeminence."
"Hinduism is the most ancient expression of Sanatan Dharma, the eternal and universal religion."
" The insights of which the Hindu teachings are based were revelation in the highest sense of the word."
"A special charm of studying Indian philosophy today is that it is more truly Western, in the modern, scientific sense, than any system of philosophy that the West has produced. Whereas Western rationalism has broken down under the impact of scientific discoveries, Indian thought cheerfully rides the crest of the wave, and is only pushed higher by every new scientific finding."

 

[sharanks]

I wonder why all these people traditionally considered the "other" or "white" have to serve as a reference point for us hindus. This is the outcome of years of subjugation by the muslim thieves and the british plunderers. Let us know the worth of yoga before an American patents the yoga mat as an american invention! In the same vein, let us know the worth of hinduism before the West adopts its principles and appropriates them. For example, the aryan invasion theory comes to mind. Many foriegn scholars, the relevance of our ancient theories notwithstanding, try to find a Proto-Indo-European link so that our theories are a result of team work and not the fruit of years of sustained philosophical enquiry. If we need to assert the relevance of Indian philosophy (unknown to the man on the street in the West) socio-economic development is the only solution. For that to happen, sanitation facilites and provisions for other basic civic amenities should be of utmost priority and this should happen tomorrow, I wonder if there's one...

 

[talwan]

Dr. Heinrich Zimmer (1890-1943), the great German Indologist, a man of penetrating intellect, the keenest esthetic sensibility. Zimmer came to the United States in 1940, at the height of his career, and was lecturing at Columbia University when he died in 1943. His other works in the Bollingen series include Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization and Philosophies of India. "We of the Occident are about to arrive at a crossroads that was reached by the thinkers of India some seven hundred years before Christ. This is the real reason, why we become both vexed and stimulated, uneasy and yet interested, when confronted with the concepts and images of Oriental wisdom."

(source: Readings in Eastern Religious Thought - Hinduism - Edited by Allie M. Frazier vol 1. p 17).

 

[talwan]

Irwin Babbitt (1865-1933) the Harvard literary scholar and cultural thinker, will always stand as a monument to American intellectual culture at its finest. Babbitt had a fascination with Asian religion and philosophy. He was one of the principal critics of the twentieth century and an influential teacher of T. S. Eliot.

"East bowed low before the blast in humble deep disdain,
It let the legions thunder past, and plunged in thought again."
​

 

[talwan]

Robert Arnett ( ) professor, has lectured widely throughout America including the Smithsonian Institute and Harvard and Yale Universities. He has been interviewed on National Public Radio, Voice of America and various television programs. Arnett in his new book ' India Unveiled ' says: "Hinduism is greatly misunderstood in the West. Most occidentals do not realize that Hinduism is a monotheistic belief in only one God, who as Creator is beyond time, space and physical form. The entire pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses are merely representations of different attributes of the One, Unmanifested Spirit. Hinduism created a different deity for each of God's numerous qualities to make God seem more real and approachable."
" Hinduism is a very tolerant religion. It does not have claim exclusivity of the true God for only itself.'
The Rig Veda, clearly states: "Though men call it by many names, it is really One."

 

[talwan]

Pierre Simon de Laplace ( 1749-1827) French mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer, a contemporary of Napoleon. Laplace is best known for his nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system. " It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by ten symbols, each receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value, a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity, the great ease which it has lent to all computations, puts our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions, and we shall appreciate the grandeur of this achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Appollnius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity."

 

[sharanks]

Dear talwan, thanks for the replies. It is interesting to go through the praises heaped on the hindus by the whites. What I wanted to underline is the fact that unless there is economic progress, we cannot prove to the "others" that India is indeed the teacher of the world's greatest civilizations. Here, it should be understood that no civilization can develop on its own. It is by way of give and take that evolution of ideas takes place. While we Indians accept that we are consumers of a white greek intelligence, only economic stability, transparent administration and true democracy can help hinduism or let me be point blank, indian intelligence assert its place in the scientific arena. For the moment, we need national pride, I mean hindu pride. Hindus should unite. Only then, I presume, can we look to the future. There is no point in bragging about our scientific developments when millions of Hindus can't afford one square meal.

 

[talwan]

Ninian Smart ( ) Professor of Sociology. Born in Scotland, he taught at the Universities of London, Birmingham, and Wales for many years before moving to the University of California, Santa Barbara, "The genius of Hinduism is to combine divergent practices and beliefs into one overall system. "
(source: unknown).

 

[talwan]

Albrecht Weber (1825 - 1901) author of The History of Indian Literature, London 1878, writes: “When we compare the doctrines, aims, organization of this (Pythagorean) brotherhood with Buddhistic monarchism, we are almost tempted to regards Pythagoras as the pupil of the Brahmins…Dualism, Pessimism, metempsychosis, celibacy, a common life according to the rigorous rules, frequent self-examination, meditation, devotion, prohibitions against bloody sacrifices, kindliness towards all men, truthfulness, fidelity, justice, and all these elements are common to both.”
(source: Manu: A Study in Hindu Social Theory - By Kewal Motwani p. 23).

 

[talwan]

Francesco Clemente ( ) Italian born Indophile, New York artist Clemente was born in 1952. His art was displayed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum recently. He is the youngest artist ever to receive a full-museum retrospective at the Guggenheim. Clemente arrived in India in 1973 and 1978 made more than ten trips there, immersing himself deep in India's philosophy, religion, art and crafts. "The Gods who left thousands of years ago in Milan (Europe) are still in India."
"In Indian diversity there is still the memory of very refined expressions which we have lost."

 

[talwan]

Geoffrey Moorhouse (1931 - )author of several books including India Britannica, and Om: an Indian Pilgrimage. He has observed: "No other country has lived with so complicated a past so equably, assimilating everything that has happened to it, obliterating naught, so that not even the intricate histories of European states have produced such a rich pattern as that bequeathed by the Mauryas, the Ashokas, the Pahlavas, the Guptas, the Chalykyas, the Hoysalas, the Pandyas, the Cholas, the Mughals, and the British - to identify a few of the people that have shaped India's inheritance. "
"Religion, flourishes here as it does nowhere else. Other lands may surrender themselves totally to a particular faith, but in India most creeds are deeply rooted and acknowledged fervently. Virtually the whole population practices some form of devotion: the Indian without the slightest feeling for the divine, without a spiritual dimension to his life, is exceedingly rare."

Incomparable and inimitable she is, India is also our great paradigm."

 

[talwan]

Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (1862-1932), the son of portrait painter Cato Lowes Dickinson. He was brought up in a Christian Socialist environment and though he later rejected Christianity he saw his work in the context of its social utility. He was a pacifist during World War I, and he was later instrumental in the conception of the League of Nations.

He is the author of An Essay on the Civilizations of India, China & Japan, in an essay which seeks with justice to define the character of Indian civilization, profoundly remarks, that it is so unique that the contrast is not so much between East and West as between India and the rest of the world. Thus India stands for something which distinguishes it from all other peoples, and so she calls Herself a Karma-bhumi as opposed to the Bhoga-bhumi of all other peoples. For this She has been wonderfully preserved until today. Even now we can see the life of thousands of years ago. Standing on the Ghats at Benares or by any village well we are transported into the beautiful antique world.
​

 

[talwan]

George Bernard Shaw, (1856-1950) a vegetarian and Nobel Laureate in Literature. He was an active socialist on the executive committee of the Fabian Society along with Annie Besant. Famous British Author and Playwright, of books such as Pygmalion. Shaw remarked:
"The Indian way of life provides the vision of the natural, real way of life. We veil ourselves with unnatural masks. On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of the Creators hand. "

 

[T.S.Sankara Narayanan]

இந்து மதம்," இங்கிருந்து போகிறவனை " ஏன் போகிறாய் ? என்று என்றுமே கேட்டதுமில்லை....

அதுபோல் திரும்பி வருபவனை " ஏன் திரும்பி வந்தாய் ?" என்றும் கேட்பதில்லை.

மத பிரச்சாரம் செய்து அடுத்த மத மக்களை மதமாற்றம் செய்வதும் இல்லை.

இருந்தும் இந்துக்களின் எண்ணிக்கை குறைவதும் இல்லை.

 

[sarang]

I hate to divert the discussion away from the title; talwan is doing a decent compilation of how foreigners have viewed our religion.

Even though, numbers are not reducing, percentage share of hindus in the total population is going down; this is a dangerous trend. See what is happening to minority hindus in muslim countries; now, christian countries (france, uk and ussr) have started asserting their religion. Only hindus can live any country as minorities without disturbing the local religion and culture.

இந்து மதம்," இங்கிருந்து போகிறவனை " ஏன் போகிறாய் ? என்று என்றுமே கேட்டதுமில்லை....

அதுபோல் திரும்பி வருபவனை " ஏன் திரும்பி வந்தாய் ?" என்றும் கேட்பதில்லை.

மத பிரச்சாரம் செய்து அடுத்த மத மக்களை மதமாற்றம் செய்வதும் இல்லை.

இருந்தும் இந்துக்களின் எண்ணிக்கை குறைவதும் இல்லை.

 

[talwan]

Sir Charles Norton Edgcumbe Eliot (1864-1931), British diplomat and colonial administrator, a famous scholar and linguist of Oxford, observed on his book Hinduism and Buddhism - An Historical Sketch: "Let me confess that I cannot share the confidence in the superiority of Europeans and their ways which is prevalent in the West." " European civilization is not satisfying and Asia can still offer something more attractive to many who are far from Asiatic in spirit."
"Indian religions have more spirituality and a greater sense of the Infinite than our western creeds and more liberality.

They are not merely tolerant but often hold that different classes of mankind have their own rules of life and suitable beliefs and that he who follows such partial truths does no wrong to the greater and all-inclusive truths on which his circumstances do not permit him to fix his attention....and are more penetrated with the idea that civilization means a gentle and enlightened temper - an idea sadly forgotten in these days of war. "
"I do not think that Christianity will ever make much progress in Asia, for what is commonly known by that name is not the teaching of Christ but a rearrangement of it made in Europe and like most European institutions practical rather than thoughtful. And as for the teaching of Christ himself, the Indian finds it excellent but not ample or satisfying. There is little in it which cannot be found in some of the many scriptures of Hinduism..."

"The claim of India to the attention of the world is that she, more than any other nation since history began, has devoted herself to contemplating the ultimate mysteries of existence and, in my eyes, the fact that Indian thought diverges widely from our own popular thought is a positive merit."
(source: Hinduism and Buddhism - An Historical Sketch - 3 volume set p. xcviii - xcix).

 

[talwan]

W. Crooke in his book " The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India" (Oxford University Press, 1896. " Among all the great religions of the world there is none more catholic, more assimilative, than the mass of beliefs which go to make up what is popularly known as Hinduism."

 

[talwan]

Juan (Joan) Mascaro (1897 - 1987) taught at Oxford University, Parameshvara College at Jaffna, the University of Barcelona, and Cambridge University. He was the author of The Bhagvad Gita - translated By Juan Mascaro. Penguin Classics, 1962) and he paid a rich tribute to the glory of the Sanskrit literature:
"Sanskrit literature is a great literature. We have the great songs of the Vedas, the splendor of the Upanishads, the glory of the Upanishads, the glory of the Bhagavad-Gita, the vastness (100,000 verses) of the Mahabharata, the tenderness and the heroism found in the Ramayana, the wisdom of the fables and stories of India, the scientific philosophy of Sankhya, the psychological philosophy of yoga, the poetical philosophy of Vedanta, the Laws of Manu, the grammar of Panini and other scientific writings, the lyrical poetry, and dramas of Kalidasa. Sanskrit literature, on the whole, is a romantic literature interwoven with idealism and practical wisdom, and with a passionate longing for spiritual vision."
"Amongst the sacred books of the past, the Upanishads can be called the truth the Himalayas of the soul. Their passionate wanderings of discovery to find that sun of the spirit in us, from whom we have the light of our consciousness and the fire of our life; the greatness of their questions, and the sublime simplicity of their answers; their radiance of joy..."
(source: The Upanishads - By Juan Mascaro).