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“What is India?” earned worldwide appreciation

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" Indian philosophers' subtleties make most of
 the great European philosophers look like schoolboys."

-- T.S. Eliot, a great American poet and critic
  If you are suspicious about the heritage and culture of your country, a book of quotes  entitled “What is India?” by Salil Gewali would be an eye-opener, says John Palmer of Las Vegas, Nevada. Palmer is a big fan of  Indian classical wisdom and spiritualism.  A book of quotations compiled and published by Salil Gewali of  Shillong, Meghalaya (INDIA) is doubtlessly a remarkable attempt to showcase the views of the world renowned scholars about India and her classical literature , particularly Vedas, Upanishad and Bhagavad Gita. The book provides how Indian wisdom inspired ‘the greatest of the great’ scientists, writers, poets etc that include Werner Heisenberg --- father of Quantum Physics,  T. S. Eliot --- great American writer, Voltaire, Friedrich Hegel, Ralph Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, H G Wells, Mark Twain, Bernard Shaw, Erwin Schrodinger--- father of Quantum mechanics. The compilation has already earned the world-wide appreciation.
                 A US based renowned writer  Prof Chitra Divakaruni  whose famous novel ‘The Mistress of Spices’ was released as a film starring  Aishwarya Rai, says -----   "Salil Gewali has lovingly compiled an excellent set of quotations that illustrate how highly great thinkers from all over the world valued Indian spiritual culture and how it transformed their lives. An inspirational read that reminds us of our amazing ancient heritage and why we need to incorporate it into our lives as modern Indians." The book illustrates how the father of Atomic Bomb, Julius Robert Oppenheimer got immersed into the treasure trove of oriental knowledge who even had gone to the extent of proclaiming ---- "What we shall find in  Modern Physics  is an exemplification, an encouragement and  a refinement of old Indian wisdom." 
               The book has even won the fascination of an internationally acclaimed NASA scientist, Prof. A. V. Murali, who comments --- “ 'WHAT IS INDIA' is simply outstanding!  I never knew that such a compilation exists and we all should be thankful to Salil Gewali !  These great quotes should be embossed  on plaques and displayed on the walls of our Parliament, State Assembly Halls, and at all our educational institutions.   Most importantly, the material should be made a compulsory reading for all the school students --- elaborating  more on ' who is who' and the monumental contributions of these intellectual giants.”  
                 The global recognition that the book earned is doubtlessly something remarkable we Indiana  people can take pride in. A scholar from Scotland says --- ‘I congratulate Salil Gewali for this beautiful quotes book on Indian classical literature. True intellectual minds who are free from prejudices always appreciate Indian wisdom. Indian wisdom is secular and universal. A big proof is Salil's book with eminent scholars' comments who are mostly scientists and philosophers.’
                
The book was released by the Governor of Meghalaya and forwarded by the Education Minister of the Meghalaya itself. ‘Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust’ of Chennai has undertaken the task of translating and publishing Gewali’s book into seven languages, as - Tamil, Hindi, Marathy, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit and Malayalam. ‘While the West has excelled at investigating and manipulating the Exterior world, the East has specialized in understanding and transforming the Interior world. This book is a superb eye-opener’, opines Dr  K Bruder of  Michigan, USA.


Dr. Naresh Goswami
Dibrugarh, Assam
Email: naresh44pgoswami@gmail.com

Know your INDIA

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Dr. Deepa Majumdar, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Purdue University North Central, USA
               Every nation has its native essence, its unique historical destiny as carved by this essence, and its unique trajectory towards this destiny. At any point in its history, the citizens of a nation will be existentially apart from their nation, for they each have a birth and a death existentially separate from the birth and ongoing life of the nation. Therefore no citizen can, rationally speaking, claim in essence to belong wholly to any particular nationality. Much as we may love India, no Indian citizen can claim to be essentially Indian. We are each essentially human, and incidentally, by circumstance of birth, citizens of India.
Nevertheless, citizens define their nations and contribute to its ever living history. To do this consciously is far more effective than to do this out of blind patriotism. Inasmuch as our colonial wound is yet to be fully healed, the temptation towards blind patriotism is great indeed – all the more, given the uniquely marvelous history of India. The solution lies not in avoiding patriotism, but in engaging in this love for nation in the most circumspect way possible, with our focus wholly on the heart of our ancient civilization. More than ever before, it is now that we need patriotism to fight the biggest temptation India has ever faced in her chequered history -- namely the temptation of mammon through the unguarded onslaught of capitalism. Since we may not yet be self-conscious enough to comprehend our own exceptionalism, to be articulated realistically and without egotism, we have no choice but to depend on the accolades heaped upon India by the intellectual giants of the western world, some of them from nations that were former colonizers.
Today, the greatest danger faced by a poor “third world” country, when confronted with westernization (understood as capitalism, science, and technology), is the terrible loss in wisdom (and the concomitant anguish) that comes as the inevitable price to be paid for the “benefit” of rank materialism. Whether or not a nation falls into this trap of materialism depends again on its inborn acumen and native telos. In the case of India, this immortal telos was declared by revered Swami Vivekananda to be entirely spiritual and mystical. We are, in essence, not militaristic. Nor are we, in essence, commercial. Our unique heritage, bequeathed by generations of sages, is that which mammon can never destroy, nor money ever purchase ... namely, divine wisdom with a total focus on attaining the mystical state of nirvanic enlightenment. Yes post-independent India has shown few signs of such spirituality. She has fallen far from the Gandhian ideals of non-violence and tolerance. She has surged towards capitalism with a ruthless greed. But what we see so far is perhaps only the short run. Before she turns around to her own native telos, like any other nation, India has to make her own mistakes. This makes it all the more imperative that we Indians remain keenly circumspect about our unique history.
It is in the light of this background that I appreciate all the more, Mr. Salil Gewali’s unique anthology of original quotations on India, collected painstakingly from some of the greatest intellectual giants from the west. Titled, What is India: Know the answer from the world renowned intellectual giants, this illustrated work, published by Academic Publications, is, I suggest, all the more welcome and necessary at this phase of India’s history. If we are to overcome not only external dangers like post-colonialism and capitalism, but also internal dangers like caste prejudices and the oppression of women --- if we are to fight the greatest danger of our times – namely the danger of rank cynicism --- we must return to the mystical pinnacle of our civilization to understand our uniqueness. For India stands alone among the nations of the world in having made the direct empirical experience of God realization the heart, hallmark, and principle acumen of her unique historical journey. Where others explored the arts and sciences, or wrote elaborate intellectual theologies, India charted the science of mysticism aimed at the direct, unequivocal realization of God. It is from this fountainhead of God inspired experience that Hindu wisdom draws its power.
In this work, Mr. Gewali includes quotations from credible intellectual giants like T. S. Eliot, A. Einstein, W. Heisenberg, J. R. Oppenheimer, F. M. Voltaire, Mark Twain, R.W. Emerson, and A. Schopenhauer, among others. All these quotations express awe for ancient Hindu wisdom, often seen as the cradle of European knowledge – that very knowledge that was foisted on India through colonialism. Some of these western intellectuals are humble enough to openly acknowledge the far greater maturity of Indian thought compared to European philosophy. Thus, if we have at one extreme, the poet T. S. Eliot saying, “Indian philosophers’ subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like schoolboys,” then we have at the other extreme, the scientist A. Einstein saying, “We owe a lot to Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.” Most important perhaps is the fact that there is no quarrel between ancient Indian philosophy and modern western science. In fact, as some western scientists quoted by Mr. Gewali have declared, Indian philosophy makes clearer the ideas of Physics. Thus we have the words of W. Heisenberg, “After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense.” Of the ancient Indian texts, the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita have been singled out by the western intellectuals quoted by Mr. Gewali. Thus in the words of Arthur. Schopenhauer, “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life; and it will be the solace of my death. They are the product of the highest wisdom.”
As to why these western intellectuals express so much awe, notwithstanding their own great accomplishments, can perhaps best be explained in terms of the uncalculated method used by the ancient Hindu sages – a method quite the opposite of that used by western thinkers. Unlike the latter, who use mainly speculative discursive argumentation, the Hindu sages first experienced the loftiest experiences. Only after this direct proof, did they write. There is therefore in their accounts of the divine, an indelible and scintillating stamp of the authentic – a stamp so alluring that foreign intellectuals easily detect in this Hindu wisdom, the highest knowledge of God.
The great love for India, which Mr. Gewali bears, is evident in the care with which he has compiled this work. He has taken care not only to collect quotations on India by source, but to provide us also with valuable biographical information and pictures of the intellectual giants he cites.
I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Salil Gewali for this unique labor of love.

The book may be visited at : http://what-is-india.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-is-india.html

ANCIENT WISDOM FOR MODERN TIMES

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With the beginning of the new millennium we are witnessing more frequent and dramatic instances of Nature’s destructive power; the severe earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan being the most recent. For many of us these natural catastrophes, as well as manmade disasters, have caused deep reflection on the age-old questions of life. If tens of thousands of lives can be wiped out in an instant, without warning, what does it all mean? Life, as we know it, is so fleeting—why are we even here? Is there anything permanent we can latch onto in this world?

These events bring home the value and relevance of the great mystical teachings, particularly the Vedanta philosophy of India as set down in the Upanishads and The Bhagavad Gita. In an impermanent world they speak uncompromisingly of that permanent reality we are all seeking (consciously or not). In Vedanta that Reality is called Brahman and is defined as eternal, immortal, unchanging, indivisible, beyond the pairs of opposites and, according to mystics from all traditions, can be directly experienced by us. Moreover, the purpose of life is to realize our identity with that Divine Reality.
The Vedantic principles speak of the unity of all existence, the universality of spiritual truth (that each religion is a path to God), and a God that is not distant at all. Although transcendent, It is also immanent—is the indwelling Presence that gives life. These basic truths are becoming more and more part of our thinking. Evidence of this can be seen in the works of great Western philosophers, scientists and writers. ‘What is India’  by Salil Gewal provides an extensive compilation of what these influential, world-renowned individuals have said about India’s contribution to science and spirituality. The wisdom of these teachings also permeates the works of many modern spiritual writers and thinkers such as Eckhart Tolle, Thomas Merton, and Don Miguel Ruiz. The influence of these ancient Vedantic teachings of India started early in American history and can be seen in the works of such great writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain and TS Eliot.
With technology fostering a global consciousness and change in our worldview, we have a newfound sense of interconnectedness. Can it be a coincidence that the Vedantic scriptures of ancient India, which speak of the oneness of all life, are now available to us? It would appear that humanity on a larger scale then ever before is ready to hear these crucial ideas. Fritjof Capra’s world famous ‘The Tao of Physics’  is a successful attempt to validate the ancient wisdom. He says ‘The two foundations of twentieth-century physics - Quantum theory and Relativity theory both force us to see the WORLD very much in the way a Hindu sees it.
           The urgency of our times makes the dissemination of these teachings of oneness, universality, and acceptance of other paths imperative for our future existence. A great thinker Arthur Schopenhauer exclaims  ‘Upanishads have been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death. They are the product of highest wisdom.’  
          India, the country shaped like a heart, is the mystical heart of the world. It is the great reservoir of spirituality for humanity to dip into whenever it tires of the aridity of secular life and materialism, of doctrines and sensuality. Since its precious teachings have been translated and given away to the rest of the world over the last two centuries, perhaps it isn’t as necessary now to go to India to discover them: India is a spiritual territory, a spiritual direction, not geography. So in this text we will try to capture the spirit of India—the India of the sages, of lofty thoughts, of the highest mysticism—and the essence of that is called Vedanta. The author’s hope and prayer is that the ideas, insights, and promising message of these marvelous scriptures of India will inspire and encourage the reader to personally test the validity of these universal truths. Thus Salil’s compilation will be a most worthwhile gift to all of us.

Anna Hourihan
Publisher & Editor 

Redding, California, USA  

Western greats on INDIA

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Bikash Sarmah
                        No matter how our self-styled secularists vilify ancient Indian or Hindu wisdom, there is an element of eternity and universality about that treasure trove. It is a great work of reason and analysis. And there is no confusion in the discourse. Such is its universality that the intelligent Westerner woke up to it long ago and discovered the wealth therein. Such is its practicality that when Albert Einstein deconstructed the long-held Newtonian world view in the early part of the 20th century, and when quantum mechanics from the other side revolutionized the whole course of physics and brought about a paradigm shift in our perception of matter and energy, the founding fathers of the evolving field had already taken resort in Hindu wisdom, and to their utter surprise found that Hindu wisdom and the broader framework of Eastern philosophy talked in the same language as modern physics was beginning to do. And it was not restricted to physics or mathematics alone. Even Western writers and philosophers began to appreciate Hindu wisdom, but not without struggling to comprehend the non-Newtonian Hindu world view — used as they were to a discrete, Newtonian notion of fundamentalism, both in the material and non-material world.
As acclaimed physicist and thinker Fritjof Capra says in his classic The Tao of Physics, ‘‘The picture of an interconnected cosmic web which emerges from modern atomic physics has been used extensively in the East to convey the mystical experience of nature. For the Hindus, Brahman is the unifying thread in the cosmic web, the ultimate ground of all being... In Buddhism, the image of the cosmic web plays an even greater role. The core of the Avatamsaka Sutra, one of the main scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, is the description of the world as a perfect network of mutual relations where all things and events interact with each other in an infinitely complicated way.’’
Such world view brings a lot of discomfort to the typical Western mind brought up in a culture that emphasizes only rigid fundamentals and overlooks the varied possibilities beyond the confinement of fundamentals, unlike in the Hindu system that rejects such fundamentalism and espouses a notion of the world, both material and spiritual, that jells wonderfully with the implications of the theories of modern physics. But how many know this? It is in this context that a compilation of Western thoughts on India and its ancient wisdom, titled What is India? and compiled by Salil Gewali and  published by Academic Publications, Shillong, is pertinent. It captures the best of comments by Western intellectual giants on Hindu wisdom and its timelessness, reflecting also on the parallels between modern physics and Hindu wisdom. Let us hear some of them.
Werner Heisenberg, one of the founders of quantum mechanics and celebrated for his epoch-making Uncertainty Principle in quantum mechanics that rejects the Newtonian assertion of predicting the position and momentum of matter simultaneously, glorifies Hindu wisdom thus: ‘‘After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of quantum physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense.’’ If Einstein says that ‘‘we owe a lot to Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could be made’’, Julius R Oppenheimer, the father of nuclear bomb, goes further: ‘‘What we shall find in modern physics is an exemplification, an encouragement and a refinement of old Hindu wisdom.’’
Come to TS Eliot, who needs no introduction. He says: ‘‘Indian philosophers’ subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like schoolboys.’’ What Eliot means, in other words, is that when it comes to subtlety — that is, to the delicate refinement of ideas — most of the great European philosophers should rather be huddled in a classroom with an Indian philosopher teaching and guiding them. That is why Francois M Voltaire, one of the greatest French writers and philosophers, admits thus: ‘‘I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganga — astronomy, astrology, spiritualism etc. It is very important to note that some 2,500 years ago at the least Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganga to learn geometry... But he would certainly not have undertaken such a strange journey had the reputation of the Brahmins’ science not been long established in Europe.’’ And that is why Ralph Waldo Emerson, great American author and essayist, confesses to having been ‘‘haunted’’ by the Vedas. ‘‘In them (the Vedas),’’ Emerson says, ‘‘I have found eternal compensation, unfathomable power, unbroken peace.’’ And hence the candour, again, of Arthur Schopenhauer, one of the greatest German philosophers and writers: ‘‘In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life; and it will be the solace of my death. They are the product of the highest wisdom.’’
Perhaps the best eulogy for India, as it truly deserves, has come from Frederich von Schlegel, acclaimed German writer, critic, philosopher, and one of the founders of German Romanticism: ‘‘There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the clarity and the philosophical precision of Sanskrit, and this great India is not only at the origin of everything, she is (also) superior in everything, intellectually, religiously or politically, and even the Greek heritage seems pale in comparison.’’
The booklet, What is India? is doubtless a unique venture, and the publishers deserve kudos for having accomplished such an onerous task as to compile comments on India and Hindu wisdom by a galaxy of Western intellectual giants and then to choose the best and the most relevant ones. The tragedy, however, remains: a pseudo-secular dispensation as we are blessed with at the Centre would hardly initiate any move to popularize ancient Indian wisdom, which is essentially Hindu, and call upon the youth of the country to rediscover their past and marvel at the sheer effulgence of Hindu wisdom — stemming not from any dogmatic, fundamentalist and conditioned world view, but from a holistic way of life and its liberating experience. This is so because the word ‘‘Hindu’’ will invariably echo in any discourse on ancient Indian wisdom and the country’s perverse, self-styled secularists will discover a ‘communal’ agenda there — ‘against our pluralist ethos’. These poor souls do not realize — nor do they want to — that whatever pluralist ethos the country today takes pride in and will sustain for all times is due solely to the Hindu way of life, a preponderant way of life in India. Why, look at how the other by-product of Partition, including Bangladesh, has evolved.
Our rich past must remain our greatest inspiration and inform our engagement with the world. Even quantum mechanics and all of its later avatars recognize that fact of life. Let us all be proud of it all.
(The writer  is the Editor of ‘The Sentinel’, a  Guwahati-based daily)

what is india

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