Love thy neighbour as thyself because you are your neighbour. It is illusion that makes you think that your neighbour is someone other than yourself - Dr S Radhakrishnan
Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan ( Sept 1888- April 1975) has been one of the most distinguished 21st century Indian Scholar, Philosopher and Statesman. His academic excellence and professional skills were recognized by some of the topmost Educational Institutions, Universities and International Organizations all over the globe, where he held prestigious positions with highest standards of Ethics and Dignity.
Although he held topmost positions of Vice President and the President of India, he maintained his literary passion for teaching, writing as well as sharing of thoughts at all times.
Besides his in- depth reading of key World Religions, he possessed immense knowledge of European Philosophy and the literary works of some of the greatest International Philosophers. He was well read into the Classics of Hinduism including the Upanishads, the Bhagwat Gita and others besides in depth understanding of spiritual works of some of the topmost scholars of Hinduism namely, Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva &Nimbkara. He had great understanding of the scholastic works of Buddhism & Jainism religions. He advocated non- aggression and conveyed a Universal Reality of God, that embraced love and wisdom for all.
His philosophy was grounded in अद्वैता वेदान्ता। He defended Hinduism and shaped its understanding in both India and the West, many a times acting as a bridge builder between India and the West. He believed that Teachers should be the best minds in the country. His birthday is celebrated as " Teachers Day" in India.
He wrote several books viz Indian Philosophy, The Philosophy of Upanishads, Eastern Religion & Western Thought, Religion and Society, The Bhagwat Gita: with introductory essay and many more. He also shared his views regularly on subjects of Ethics, Religion as well as Idealist view of life in several journals of repute. I am sharing below some of selective learnings from his vast treasure of literary knowledge and experience.
ON RELIGION & RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES
- A man without Religion is like a horse without bridle. It is the conquest of fear; the antidote to failure and death.
- True Religion is a revolutionary face; it is an inveterate enemy of oppression, privilege and injustice. The Religion of a True Religious is a simple one, without any shackles of creeds, dogmatic sentiments or supernatural elements.
- Every civilization is the expression of a Religion. It signifies faith in absolute values & a way of life to realize them. Religious Faith gives us the passion to preserve in the way of life & if it declines, obedience degenerates into habit & the habit slowly withers away.
- All Religions owe their inspirations to the Personal insights of their Prophet Founders. Religious theories may be mere speculations. We can not be sure what is true, or whether anything is true at all. Different Religions represent not Truth, but views or apprehensions of Truth.
- We employ the Energies and Emotions of Religion. In several situations, Religion has been identified with feelings, emotions and instinct, cult & rituals, perceptions, beliefs & faith and these views are right in what they affirm, though wrong in what they deny.
- Religion is the Binding Force which deepens the Solidarity of Human Society in-spite of its shortcomings. It is a summon to Spiritual Adventure, not theology alone, but practice and discipline. It is the only remedy for the pride of spirit which has divorced itself from the Eternal. Religion helps in restoration of the lost relationship between the Individual and Eternal.
- The common goal of all Religions is Spiritual life. If we compare one Religion with others, we will see that the differences relate to the formulas and practices only.
- Comparative Religion enables us to study faiths other than our own without contempt. No God seems to be final & no Religion perfect. Every Religion is moulded by fallible & imperfect human instruments.
- Religion has been the instrument of social reforms and hence Humanism comes into focus alongside the Philosophy of any Religion. Humanism contends that this World is our chief interest & Perfection of Humanity our one of the ideal. Humanism demands a disciplined life & insists on Wholeness and Harmony. Humanism is concerned with Values while Religion relates Values to Reality. There is no conflict between Religion & a Reasonable Humanism.
- To do justly, to love beauty & to work humbly with the Spirit of Truth is the highest Religion. Therefore Religion, in ultimate sense is Behaviour & not mere Belief.
- The Vedanta requires us to respect Human Dignity and demands the recognition of man as man. Every individual is to be regarded as our Co-Equal & treated as an End, not a Means.
- Moral life is an unremitting active energizing, which is never exhausted. It takes endless forms and the process goes on forever, until Perfect Knowledge is gained, which consumes the seed of " कर्मा " and makes rebirth impossible.
- All our world organizations will prove ineffective if the Truth that Love is stronger than Hate does not inspire them. Here ,quoting Guru Nanak," Truth is higher than everything but higher still is True Conduct"; Quoting another great spiritual philosopher Rumi," Only narrow souls are divided; all great souls are united and form a single community."
- Tolerance is the homage which the Finite Mind pays to the inexhaustibly of the Infinite.
- We should not do to others what will be offensive to us. This is धर्मा in essence. We must look upon others as ourselves.
- Good produces Good; Evil, Evil. Love increases our power of love; Hatred our power of hatred. It emphasizes the great importance of Right Action. The law of कर्मा says that each individual will get the return according to the energy he puts forth. Faith in कर्मा induces in us the mood of True Justice and Charity, the essence of Spirituality.
- All Ethical goods, bound up as they are with the world of distinctions, are valuable as means to the end. While Self Realization is the Absolute Good, Ethical Goods are only relative since these help in Realization of the Infinite.
- The Ethical Problem arises because there is constant struggle between the Infinite Character of the Soul and the Finite Dress it has clothed itself in.
- Every individual must Subdue his Senses, which calls for Self Assertion; Pride must give place to Humility, Resentment to Forgiveness and narrow attachment to family to Universal Benevolence.
- Moral growth consists in a gradual correction of the individualistic point of view. The end of morality is to lift oneself up above Ones Individuality and become one with the Impersonal Spirit of the Universe. Man has to purify himself from the defilement of the World, strip off all clothing and leave behind everything unworthy. He must break away from the slavery of Self-Hood, Passion and Senses.
- "A Persian poet has compared Universe to an old manuscript of which first and last pages are lost. Ever since man attained consciousness, he has been trying to discover these lost pages". Dr Radhakrishnan quoted and added that Philosophy is the name of this quest and its results.
- Every phenomenon of Cosmic Evolution is characterized by activity, change or motion. All things undergo infinitesimal changes of growth & decay. In the smallest instance of time (क्षण ), the whole universe undergoes a change. This world is neither Real nor Unreal. It exists in the Eternal form of प्रकृति and passes away in its transitory manifestations.
- Our life is a step on a road, the direction and goal of which are lost in the Infinite. On this road, death is never an end or an obstacle, but at the most, the beginning of the new steps. The development of the soul is a continuous process, though it is broken into stages by the recurring Baptism of death.
- The Ultimate Self is free from sin, free from old age, free from death and grief, free from hunger and thirst, which desires nothing and imagines nothing.
- The knowledge that the Supreme Spirit dwells in the heart of every living creature is the abiding root principle of all धर्मा.
- Pragmatism rejects Absolute Truth as a myth and holds that All Truths are Human and Relative. A Truth is tested by the value of its consequences.
- Meditation is the way to Self- Discovery. To know the Truth, we have to deepen ourselves & not merely widen the surface. Silence and Quiet are necessary. Discipline and Restraint help us to put our consciousness into Relationship with Supreme.
- The Divine is both in us and out of us. God is neither completely transcendent nor completely immanent. He is Divine Darkness as well as Un-Encompassed Light.
- God lives, feels & suffers in every one of us, and in course of time, His Attributes, Knowledge, Beauty and Love will be revealed in each one of us.
- The conception of God as Wisdom, Love and Goodness is not a mere abstract demand of thought, but is the concrete reality, which satisfies the religious demand. The Hindu conception of God as ब्रह्माः , विष्णु & शिव illustrate and represent the three stages of The Plan, The Process and The Perfection. God also works as a Creative Genius does. Salvation comes from the grace of God through भक्ति & Trust with God.
- The existence of Reality is to be experienced and is beyond Logical Proof or sense perception. This Reality is Absolute, Truth of Truth and Light of Light. It is both concealed & manifest, both transcendent & immanent as well as indescribable & unknown. How can immeasurable be measured or evaluated? Though beyond all thought & word, He does exist and dwells within and outside ourselves.
- Reason is subordinated to Intuition. Life can not be comprehended in the fullness by logical reason. Self Consciousness is not the ultimate category of the universe. There is something transcending the consciousness of the self, to which many names are given-- Intuition, Revelation, Cosmic consciousness and God Vision.
- According to धर्मकीर्ति , we perceive the four Truths of Buddhism, which are beyond ordinary means of knowledge, by means of Yogic Intuition, which is free from error and intellectual taint. By constant practice of Meditation, a man may acquire super-sensuous vision, and may apprehend all objects near and far, past and future, remote and hidden. The highest kind of Insight has the immediacy of Intuition. What is a miracle for us is a natural power of great Seers.
- मोक्ष is supreme felicity marked by perfect Tranquillity and freedom from Defilement. It is not the destruction of self, but only of Bondage.
- A Perfect God does not require the world for His satisfaction. If it is said that the world is for His enjoyment, the God is no God, but only a संसारी. If we say that God has determinations, personality, perfections or other traits, it is difficult to conceive how these can co-exist with Absoluteness. The reality of God transcends our natural powers of conceiving as well as comprehending. We can be certain of God only if we resort to the spiritual insight of great Seers as recorded in the scriptures.
- ईश्वर is error free from अविद्या. The limitations of माया do not affect His knowledge since माया is His energy, His inherent force, by which He transforms the potential into the actual world. It is the creative power of the Eternal God and is therefore Eternal. माया is synonymous with प्रकृति. It is both subjective and objective, individual and universal.
- The Believer in God should love the whole universe, which is a product of God. True peace and excellence lie not in self assertion, but in offering oneself as a contribution to the True Being of the universe.
- The Soul is by nature Blissful, though it is subjected to pain and suffering, on account of connection with material bodies due to its past कर्मा. So long it is not freed from its impurities, it wanders about in changing forms of existence. Bliss becomes manifest at the time of Release.
- The जीवः in संसार, with their souls shrouded in bodies, believe that they are not so much modes of God as products of प्रकृति. Their inner light is obscured by the outer darkness of garment of nature, which it mistakes for its True Self and turns its face away from God.
- A mere Act of Goodness or contemplative insight may, for the moment, seems to lift us out of the narrowness of our individuality, but it can not give us permanent satisfaction, which is only the experience of Brahma (ब्रह्म अनुभव ). It is the supreme state of joy & peace and the perfection of individual development.
As per Dr Radhakrishnan, Gita points out that there is a Divine Creator, who imposes His forms on the abysmal world. He is Supreme. He resides in the heart of every being. He is the source and sustainer of values. He is Supra-Cosmic, Eternal, Space-less and Timeless ब्रह्म , who ensouls the cosmic forms. He is पुरुषोत्तम and परमेश्वर.
As per him, the pupil Arjuna, fighting with the forces of darkness, falsehood, limitation and mortality, appeals to Krishna, his teacher, the जगतगुरु for the grace of enlightenment and a clear rule of action. The Gita is a mandate for action and focuses on it rather than renunciation of action. Gita advocates detachment from desires and not ceasation from work. It gives us a religion, by which the rule of कर्मा , the natural order of deed and consequence, can be transcended.
Let me end the blog by another quote of Dr S Radhakrishnan.
A life of joy and happiness is possible only on the basis of knowledge.
