Sri Sadhguro Pahimam Parama Dayalu Rakshamam

[Guest guest]

Dear Members

" Hindu Dharma " is a book published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan which contains

English translation of two volumes of the Tamil Book " Deivatthin Kural " ; which

is a collection of invaluable and engrossing speeches of Sri Sri Sri

Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji.

 

http://kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part5/chap8.htm

 

Western Vedic Research

 

In the present sorry state in which the nation finds itself it has to learn

about its own heritage like the Vedas from the findings of Western soholars

called " orientalists " and from Indians conducting research on the same lines as

they. I concede that European scholars have made a very valuable study of the

Vedas. We must be thankful to them for their work. Some of them like Max Muller

conducted research out of their esteem for our scriptures. They took great pains

to gather the old texts and published volume after volume incorporating their

findings.

Two hundred years ago Sir William Jones, who was a judge of the Calcutta high

court, started the Asiatic Society. The number of books this institution has

published on Vedic subjects should arose our wonder. With the help of the East

India Company, Sir William published the Rgveda with the commentry of Sayana and

also a number of other Hindu works. Apart from Englishmen, indologists from

France, Germany and Russia have also done outstanding work here. " The discovery

of the Vedas of the Hindus is more significant than Columbus's discovery of

America, " thus exclaimed some indologists exulting in their findings.

These foreigners discovered Vedic and Vedantic texts from various parts of the

country. They translated the dharma-, grhya- and srauta - sutras. The Kundalini

Tantra gained importance only after Arthur Avalon had written extensively on it.

A number of Westerns have contributed studies of other aspects of our culture

also. It was because of the Protection of Ancient Monuments Act that came into

force during the viceroyalty of Lord Curzon that our temples and other monuments

were saved from vandals. Fergusson took photographs of our artistic treasures

(sculptures) and made them known to the world. Men like Cunningham, Sir John

Marshall and Mortimer -Wheeler did notable work in Indian archaelogy. It was

because of the labours of Mackenizie who gathered manuscripts from various parts

of India that we come to know about many of our sastras. The department of

epigraphy was started during British rule.

We suffered in many ways at the hands of the British but it was during their

time that some good was also done. But this good was not unmixed and had

undesirable elements in it. The intention of many of those who called themselves

orientalists or indologists was not above reproach. They wanted to reconstruct

the history of India on the basis of their study of the Vedas and, in the course

of this, they concocted the Aryan- Dravidian theory of races and sowed the seeds

of hatred among the people. Purporting to be rationalists they wrongly

interpreted, in an allergorical manner, what cannot be comprehended by our

senses. In commenting on the Vedas they took the view that the sages were

primitive men. Though some of them pretended to be impartial, their hidden

intention in conducting research into our religious texts was to propagate

Christianity and show Hinduism in a poor light.

A number of Westerners saw the similarity between Sanskrit and their own

languages and devoted themselves to comparative philology.

We may applaud European indologists for their research work, for making our

sastras known to a wider world and for the hard work they put in. But they were

hardly in sympathy with our view of the Vedas. What is the purpose of these

scriptures? By chanting them, by filling the world with their sound and by the

performance of rites like sacrifices, the good of mankind is ensured. This view

the Western indologists rejected. They tried to understand on a purely

intellectual plane what is beyond the comprehension of the human mind. And with

this limited understanding of theirs they printed big tomes on the Vedas to be

preserved in the libraries. Our scriptures are meant to be a living reality of

our speech and action. Instead of putting them to such noble use, to consign

them to the libraries, in the form of books, is like keeping living animals in

the museum instead of in the zoo.

 

JAYA JAYA SANKARA HARA HARA SANKARA

 

 

 

 

Thwameva Maathaa Cha Pithaa Thwameva

Thwameva Bhandhuscha Sakhaa Thwameva

 

Thwameva Vidhyaa Dhravinam Thwameva

Thwameva Sarvam Mama Dheva Dheva.