(41) the Effect of Western Writers on Hindu Scholars

8/3/2019 (41) the Effect of Western Writers on Hindu Scholars

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The effect of western writers on Hindu scholars

The primacy of English education and the abundance of biased

literature regarding the history and the Vedic religion affected the

Hindu society a great deal. The wrong historical dates of Hindu

dynasties and the notable personalities that they fixed, especially

Buddh, Chandragupt and Ashok, became a guideline, and many Hindu

writers followed the same wrong trend.

Certain great scholars and the so-called patriots of India also hadprofound effects of western education on their minds that held the

feeling of lowness for Hindu culture, history and religion. They too

collected the intellectual dirt of the western writers and used it in their

writings.

Not knowing what were they doing, their writings like: Ram was only a

good man. He was not God. betrayed and confused millions of Hindus

and contempted the authentic writings of Ved Vyas which are thenational treasures of India.

We will give you a few examples.

S. Radhakrishnan (1888-1975).

His brief biography: Born near Madras, South India, Sarvepalli

Radhakrishnan showed his intelligence since childhood. He received a

Masters degree in Arts from Madras University. His essay on Ethics of

the Vedant (as a partial fulfillment for his Masters degree) was highly

appreciated by professor A.G. Hogg as it contained the boldness of

thought and the neglect for the personal form of God.


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In 1909 he was appointed to the Department of Philosophy of the

Madras Presidency College. In 1918 he was appointed as a professor of

Philosophy at the University of Mysore and in 1921 he was appointed at

the University of Calcutta. In 1926 he represented the University of

Calcutta at the Congress of the Universities of the British Empire. From

1936 to 1939 he was appointed as a professor of Eastern Religions and

Ethics at Oxford University, in 1939 he was elected as Fellow of the

British Academy, and from 1939 to 1948 he was Vice Chancellor of the

Benares Hindu University. He was the Vice President of India from 1952

to 1962 and he also held the Office of the Chancellor, Delhi University

from 1953 to 1962. In 1962 he was elected the President of India.

He was known as a world figure in philosophy. Renowned for his

philosophical writings and lectures, he had collected enormous

information in his brain by reading all the books of the European

writers who wrote about Indian scriptures, religion and history. He was

a bookworm, and had also extensively studied western philosophy.

South Indian brahmans used to do elaborate Vedic rituals in their

temple ceremonies and they are famous for their correct Sanskrit

pronunciation. Radhakrishnan had a slighting attitude toward them

since the beginning.

The derogative views of Radhakrishnan about Hindu religion and scriptures.

We have written about Jones, Max Mller and the other writers of that

group. Radhakrishnan was not only their admirer, he was the promoter

of their views which is clearly evident from his writings. His prejudicial

attitude toward the Vedic religion and sneering opinions about the

historical Divine Masters and their writings are seen in every book hewrote. See a few examples:

Indian Philosophy Vol. I, first print 1923, reprint 1996. Indian

Philosophy Vol. II, first print 1927, reprint 1996. The Bhagavadgita first


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print 1948, reprint 1994. The Principal Upanisads first print 1953,

reprint 1995.

(About the early Hindus of Vedic religion)

Mans never-ceasing effort to raise himselfabove the level of the

beast to a moral and spiritual height finds a striking illustration in

India. (Indian Philosophy Vol. II, p. 766)

(About the Rigved)

The process of god-making in the factory of mans mind cannot be

seen so clearly anywhere else as in the Rg-Veda. (Indian Philosophy

Vol. I, p. 73)

(About the Atharvaved)

The religion of the Atharva-Veda is that of the primitive man, to

whom the world is full of shapeless ghosts and spirits of death.

The world becomes crowded with goblins and gods, and the

catastrophes of the world are traced to dissatisfied spirits The terrificpowers could only be appeased by bloody sacrifices, human and

animal The religion of the Atharva-Veda is an amalgam of Aryan and

non-Aryan ideals. (Vol. I, pp. 119, 120)

(About the Upnishads)

The Upanisads contain the earliest records of Indian speculation

they contain much that is inconsistent and unscientific. (Vol I, p. 138)

(About the Puranas)

The Puranas are the religious poetry of the period of the schools,

representing through myth and story, symbol and parable, the

traditional view of God and man They were composed with the


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purpose of undermining, if possible, the heretical doctrines of the

times. (Vol. II, p. 663)

(About the Yog Darshan of Patanjali)

The popular cult of magic is mixed up with the religious scheme of

salvation in the Yoga.

Sometimes psychic powers are also attained by the use of drugs and

anaesthetics. Narcotic intoxication and ecstatic state are confused by

the popular mind. The use of drugs is not recommended in Patanjalis

Yoga, though it is mentioned as one of the ways of obtaining

perfections. Thus the habit of drug intoxication prevalent in primitivetribes was mixed up with the higher mysticism of the Yoga. Spells and

austerities also help us in acquiring these powers. (Vol II, pp. 366, 368)

(About Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his disciples)

The orthodox were much disturbed by his startling ways. He accepted

converts from Islam freely His disciples, Rupa and Sanatana, were

renegade converts to Islam and outcasts from the Hindu society.

(Vol. II, p. 761)

The Vedas and the Upnishads were originally produced by the Rishis,

then, about 5,000 years ago, they were all reproduced by Bhagwan Ved

Vyas. The Upnishads contain the knowledge about God, maya, soul and

His devotion which is further explained in the systematically written

short sentences of the Brahm Sutra by Ved Vyas who also revealed all

the Puranas. Sage Patanjali expounded the yogic theme of the

Upnishads in his Yog Darshan which explains the eightfold path ofyogicpractice to fully eliminate the worldly desires and to purify the heart so

that the yogicould become qualified to receive and to retain the Divine

knowledge of the supreme God.


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The writer of the Indian Philosophy, Radhakrishnan, calls the early

Hindus the beast and the Divine wisdom of the Rishis the god-making

factory, and defines the Vedic religion as the religion of the primitive

man in the world of ghosts and goblins who were only satisfied with

bloody sacrifices. He speaks of the teachings of the Upnishads and the

Puranas as speculation, myth, parables and heretical doctrines;

criticizes the Brahm Sutra, and tells that the higher mysticism of Yog

Darshan was mixed up with drug intoxication.

No true Hindu can utter such words for our Divine scriptures and the

Vedic religion. They are all tamoguniwritings.

His wiliness, antipathy towards ouracharyas and his inclination towardsChristianity.

Radhakrishnan criticizes Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is the most

adorable figure to millions of Hindus, and degrades the most respected

rasikSaints of Vrindaban, Roop and Sanatan Goswami, by calling them

renegade converts to Islam and the outcasts from the Hindu society.

He doesnt stop over there. To justify the Aryan invasion fiction, hecondemns the entire history of all the manvantars by telling that

Indian civilization is about 4,000 years old in Volume I, page 46, of his

book the Indian Philosophy; and in Volume II, page 656, he draws a

parallel between the description of God (brahm) of the Upnishads with

the description of God in the Jewish and Christian religious book (the

Bible).

It may be shocking for some people to know that the world renowned

philosopher, bearing the prestige of having the seat of Vice President

and the President of India for many years, had a leaning towards the

western Christian faith and had anti-Vedic thoughts in his head, which

he covered behind the big turban that showed the sign of Hinduism.


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But the fact is, that his own statements are the evidences of his own

duplicitous character, when he writes,

To love God is to take up the cross. The surrender of the soul to the

heavenly Bridegroom a metaphor not peculiar to India. (Vol. I, p.495)

To take up the cross is a pure Christian saying which means to do

everything for the sake of Christianity. But taking the example of a

general Christian proverb and befitting it with the occasion ofmaharas

and with the unlimited depth ofGopislove for Krishn whose Divine

sweetness surpassed all the forms of Divine Blissfulness, positively

expresses the total anglicization of Radhakrishnans mind.

In the introduction of The Principal Upanisads, page 35, while

describing the creation aspect, he compares the creation theory of the

Upnishads with the Bible and the Iliad which was composed by a blind

bard of Greece, Homer. He writes:

Before creation all this was darkness shrouded in darkness, an

impenetrable void or abyss of waters.(Footnote on page 35 in ThePrincipal Upanishads: Genesis 1.2, where the Spirit of God is said to

move on the face of the waters, and the Puranic description of Vishnu

as resting on the Serpent Infinite in the milky ocean. Homers Iliad

speaks of Oceanos as the source of all things including even the gods.)

In the Indian Philosophy Vol. I, page 103, he writes,

The personal God brooding over the waters the Narayana resting on

the eternal Ananta. It is the god of Genesis who says, Let there be, andthere was.

Here again Radhakrishnan compares the Divine greatness of Gracious

and kind God Narain (Vishnu) with the wrathful God of the Old

Testament (Genesis).


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At one place the Kathopnishad describes the ascending dependability

of soul, maya and God.

The meaning of this verse is, Maya (the original cosmic power called

prakriti) is beyond the soul and is more powerful than the soul; and

beyond maya is God in His personal form(purushah). Beyond the

personality of God there is no other (Divine) matter. He is the final goal

of a soul. The key word in this verse ispurushah which means the

Personal form of God. But, Radhakrishnan alters the meaning of the

wordpurushah from the Personality of God to spirit, because theNew Testament (John 4/24) describes God as a spirit. Thus he

translates it like this,

Beyond the great self(atma) is the unmanifest (prakriti); beyond the

unmanifest is the spirit. Beyond the spirit there is nothing. That is the

end of the journey; that is the final goal. (The Principal Upanisads, p.

625)

In the New Testament whenever Jesus Christ is saying something, the

words Verily, Verilyare often used in the beginning of his statement.

Radhakrishnan adopts the same style in his writings while translating

the Upnishads. For instance,

Non existent, verily, was this in the beginning. Therefrom, Verily, was

existence produced. (p. 548)

The reason of his being famous as an Indian philosopher.

There were two reasons: (a) His political status as the President of

India, and (b) the ignorance of the common people about the quality of

his writings. Hindus have tremendous faith in the Gita, Bhagwat,

Ramayan and the Upnishads etc. Just the thought, that Radhakrishnan


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had translated the Gita and the Upnishads, gave an air of respect to

him. Moreover, in the political field, he was well known to Indians as

being a good politician, and people had a regard for him. His oratory

was well known, and his presentation of a subject before the students

was promising. All these things promoted his name. His appointment to

the Oxford University as a Professor of Philosophy gave him a further

rise, and his political distinction promulgated his fame when he became

the President of India. The notion, that the President of India had

written books on Indian philosophy and translated the Gita, augmented

his fame as a philosopher, and thus, he came to be known as a world

figure in philosophy.

But, it was all in the air. Had the Indians in common known what really

he had written about the Rishis, the Vedas, Bhartiya scriptures, our

most revered acharyas and Saints and about the Divine descensions,

Bhagwan Ram and Krishn, the story would have been entirely different.

More than ninety-five percent of the Indian population reads the

scriptures that are published in Indian languages, so they remain

unaware of the biasedness of his writings (which were written in

English only). Very few who take higher education in the Indianphilosophy and religion happen to study such books as those of

Radhakrishnan and other similar Indian or European writers. By the

time they finish their course they accumulate so much philosophical

confusion in their mind by studying the works of worldly and

incompetent writers that most of them lose faith in the devotional

aspects of Hindu religion and develop a kind of no-regard feeling for the

Divinity of the scriptures,Jagadgurus and the great historical Masters

as well. Thus, it doesnt matter to them what Radhakrishnan or any

other writer has written about the religion, philosophy or the culture of

India.

Many people who regarded Radhakrishnan as a philosopher have

simply praised him without even knowing what he has actually written


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in his books. Moreover, no one has ever written genuine comments on

his writings, and the common people of India and also the people of the

world dont indulge in the intricacies of the philosophy. So, the dark

side of his writings always remained hidden, and that was a plus point

on his part that maintained his image as a great Indian philosopher,

which, in fact, was a false perspective of his personality.

The writings of Radhakrishnan were more damaging to Bhartiya

religion as compared to the European writers.

The derogatory writings of the western scholars, as initiated by the

British, left a great impact on the Indian minds. But the reconfirmation

of those western views by Radhakrishnan had much more damagingeffects and confused millions of scholars of philosophy and religion

around the world by giving them entirely wrong input about Hindu

philosophy, Hindu scriptures and the Hindu religion. Just examine some

of his mis-translations.

The writings of Radhakrishnan were more damaging to Bhartiya religion as

compared to the European writers.

The derogatory writings of the western scholars, as initiated by the

British, left a great impact on the Indian minds. But the reconfirmation

of those western views by Radhakrishnan had much more damaging

effects and confused millions of scholars of philosophy and religion

around the world by giving them entirely wrong input about Hindu

philosophy, Hindu scriptures and the Hindu religion. Just examine some

of his mis-translations.

His Upnishad and Gita translations.

How wrongly he has translated the Upnishads, it can be seen from his

translations of some of the most important verses.

In the Taittariya Upnishad,


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(a) The true meaning is: He(the Supreme God) manifested and made

Himself omnipresent in the visual world.But Radhakrishnan translatesit as, That (God) made itself a soul.

(b) The true meaning is, He (sah= the Supreme Personality of God

Himself) is the Bliss; whoever perceives the Blissful God becomes blissful

forever.But Radhakrishnan translates it as, That, verily, is the essence

of existence (the existing mayic world). For, truly, on getting the

essence, one becomes blissful.(The Principal Upanisads, p. 549)

The wordsah means, the personal form of God only. All the

Jagadgurus have given detailed explanations on this particular verse,

however, Radhakrishnan has his own way.

See his translations of the Gita.

The verse 15/6 tells about the existence of Krishns

Divine abode (called the Golok), which is beyond maya and where the

material sun, moon and fire do not exist (because it is Divinely

illuminated). That param dham,the eternal and absolute abode of

Krishn, is such a Divine abode where God realized Saints go and (while

perceiving the absolute Bliss) they live there forever and they never

reincarnate in the material world. But Radhakrishnan gives his

comment on this verse and says, This verse refers to the Immutable

Brahman which can be reached by ascetic practices.(The

Bhagavadgita, p. 328)

See more extracts from The Indian Philosophy Vol. I & II (IP/I,II) and

the Principal Upanishads (PU).

Rigved has the impassionate utterances of the primitive poeticsouls. (IP/I-71)


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Atharvaved contains the pre-Vedic animist religion of spirits andghosts. It gives an idea of demonology prevalent in the tribes of

India. (PU-45;IP/I-121)

The earliest Vedic seers worshipped nature the Vedic gods werestupidly self-centered godsand ghosts governed the life of

people. (IP/I-121)

The Upnishads (aranyakas) are the speculations of the hermits.Their teachings are lost in the jumbled chaos of puerile

superstition. (IP/I-355)

He (Radhakrishnan) cannot accept Krishn of the Puranas.It wasonly the unknown author of the Gita who made Krishn famous

through his writings and devised him to pose as God (brahm).

(IP/I-496, 521)

Ram was only a good man. He was not God. His religion ispolytheistic and external.

In the theism of Ramanuja, his city of God, the heaven, where theredeemed souls dwell is not much different from the usual

description of the paradise of the popular imagination. (This is the

description of Vaikunth in the words of Radhakrishnan.) (IP/I-482)

Shankaras arid logic made his system unattractive, andRamanujas story of the other world carries no weight. (IP/II-

711)

In the Chaitanya religion the ultimate reality is Vishnu, and thereis nothing much in their theory (achintya bhedabhed vad).

(IP/II-761)

You can see that the great philosopher Radhakrishnan, introducing his

skeptical views, despises the Divineness of the philosophy and thereligion of Bharatvarsh.

He calls the Vedic Rishis as primitive poets whose impassionate

utterances are the Rigved. He says that Atharvaved incorporates the


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demonology of primitive tribes; Vedic gods are stupidly self-centered;

and the Upnishads are childish superstitions.

He criticizes the Divinity of Krishn, and says that (Bhagwan) Ram was

only a good man, not God. He condemns the Divine greatness ofVaikunth by calling it the imagined heaven of Ramanujacharya and says

that Ramanujacharyas story of the other world (Vaikunth) carries no

weight, and the dull logic of Shankaracharya makes his theory

unattractive. He refutes the most impressive theory of the Vaishnavas

of Vrindaban, the achintya bhedabhed vad, and thus, degrading the

Hindu religion and philosophy by all means, he promotes only the

western orientalists at each and every step of his writings.

A question arises: If the Upnishads are superstitious, Vedas are the

primitive utterances, and the writings ofacharyas carry no weight in his

eyes, why then has he wasted his time writing on the Indian philosophy

and the Upnishads; and why was he visiting the universities lecturing on

the Indian philosophy? Was he trying to show how useless the Hindu

religion is?

In fact, the Upnishads contain the Divine knowledge about God andGod realization, and the Gita, Bhagwatam, Ramayan, Mahabharat and

the Puranas are the Divine writings in which the Divine glory of the

supreme descensions of God (Bhagwan Ram and Krishn) are described.

The acharyas and theJagadgurus revealed the simple path of divine-

love-devotion to God for the good of mankind and established the

greatness ofbhakti(devotion to supreme God) that encouraged

uncountable souls of the world to rise above the mayic dependency

and proceed towards the fulfillment of their inner self that alwayslonged for the Divine love of the supreme Beloved of their soul.

But, Radhakrishnans derogatory writings confused millions of good

souls looking for the path to God. Covering all the aspects of Hindu

religion (the scriptures, the writings of the acharyas and the


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descensions of God) he tried to implode the entire structure of

Hinduism.

Collecting the wrongs of the European writers (who were appointed by

the British) he decorated his writings with that. It created an openingfor the other Hindu writers of the 20th century to follow the same

wrong tradition of despising the Sanskrit literature, religion and the

ancient history that was planned and designed by the British diplomats

to ruin the culture, the religion and the history of Bharatvarsh.

Such was the effect of the writings of the western orientalists and

Radhakrishnan etc., on the Indian minds that a great number of Hindu

writers followed the same wrong trend, and, on the same guidelines,a number of books were written in the last eighty years.

Documents

(41) the Effect of Western Writers on Hindu Scholars