Light from the Orient - Swami Tathagatananda

 59th of 2020 was a collection of Essays an amazing one on the impact of India's sacred literature in the West; "Light from the Orient".

Asia was destined by the Providence to become the cradle of human civilization. Among the known old civilizations like the Egyptian, Mesapotamian, Incan, Mayan, Greek, Roman and others the one that bloomed on the banks of the Indus is today undisputedly acknowledged as the oldest. In it's chequered journey through the past several millennia, it's invaluable literary treasures were wafted to all directions, paving the way for the cultural growth in distant lands. Archeological, Historical and Indological probing has shed enough light on the contributions of Oriental thought on humankind in general. Will Durant the great historian, begins The Story of Civilization saying: 'Our story begins eith the Orient, not merely because Asia was the scene of the oldest civilizations known to us but because those civilizations formed the background and basis of that Greek and Roman culture, which Henry Maine mistakenly supposed to be the whole source of the modern mind. We shall be surprised to learn how much of our most indispensable inventions, our economic and political organization our science and our literature, our philosophy and our religion, goes back to Egypt and the Orient.'

This book is an illuminating sequel to the author's earlier well-researched Journey of the Upanishads' to the world at large.

The Bhagavad Gita: A world scripture:

This magnificent poem, with its dramatic background, its psychologically convincing arguments, its universality and rationality, has been appreciated by the enlightened minds of the west. It is regarded by westerners as a " World Scripture". Mascaro, a Spanish scholar and admirer of the Upanishads, said " If Beethoven could give us in music the spirit of the Bhagavad Gita, what a wonderful symphony we should here". 

The greatest impact on Europe came through The Bhagavad Gita. Sir Charles Wilkins (1750-1836) loved the Bhagavad Gita wholeheartedly - he compared it to the Gospel of St. John

Swami Vivekananda, speaking of India's spiritual breadth and her divine gift of gathering the world towards the spiritual treasure to be found in the Upanishads and her sacred scriptures, referred to the common origin of Classical India and Classical Greece and their individual roles in the world

Book throws light on the Nalanda and Taxila university. It says how Indias's suprement knowledge is more ancient than her revealed sacred literature. The Sruthi and the Sutras, which was gathered together in great collections of Samhitas, namely the Rigveda, The Yajurveda, The Samaveda and The Atharva Veda. He calls Sanskrit as the living language of the eternal, and how for more than two thousand years, it has ceased to be a spoken language. Language is the vehicle of ideas. It is the ideas that are of prime imporatnace, language comes after. How Hinduism embraces all and never atempts to make converts.

“If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow……………… I should point to India.” Said Max Muller