If I were to look over the whole world to find out 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, we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehension, more universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life only, but transfigured and eternal life – a again I should point to India.
I know you will be surprised to here me say this. I know that more particularly those who have spent may years of active life in Calcutta, or Bombay, or Madras, will be horror-struck at the idea that the humanity they meet with there, whether in the bazaars or in the courts of justice, or in so-called native society, should be able to teach us any lessons.
You will find yourselves every where 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 observe and to learn, India will supply you with a laboratory such as exists nowhere else.
In the study of the history of the human mind, in the 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 you r special study, whether it be language, 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 inn the history of man are treasured up in India, and in India only.
249. To be free from worries is the best medicine for a healthy life.
250. Happiness always comes wearing the crown of sorrow. If you want happiness, you must be prepared to welcome sorrow as well.
251. I (the True Self) witness all; none does witness me.
252. Only one in a million can remain in perfect equanimity while engaged in worldly affairs.
253. If you have to renounce the body for the sake of Truth, do it. Attachment to the body is the last obstacle that needs to be overcome.
I know you will be surprised to here me say this. I know that more particularly those who have spent may years of active life in Calcutta, or Bombay, or Madras, will be horror-struck at the idea that the humanity they meet with there, whether in the bazaars or in the courts of justice, or in so-called native society, should be able to teach us any lessons.
You will find yourselves every where 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 observe and to learn, India will supply you with a laboratory such as exists nowhere else.
In the study of the history of the human mind, in the 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 you r special study, whether it be language, 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 inn the history of man are treasured up in India, and in India only.
249. To be free from worries is the best medicine for a healthy life.
250. Happiness always comes wearing the crown of sorrow. If you want happiness, you must be prepared to welcome sorrow as well.
251. I (the True Self) witness all; none does witness me.
252. Only one in a million can remain in perfect equanimity while engaged in worldly affairs.
253. If you have to renounce the body for the sake of Truth, do it. Attachment to the body is the last obstacle that needs to be overcome.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment