India: What can it teach us?: A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of CambridgeMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Philosophy
India: What can it teach us?: A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
India; Sanskrit literature -- History and criticism; Vedas
journey from one village to another, and not a resting-place. Thus we
read:[111]
"As a man journeying to another village may enjoy a night's
rest in the open air, but, after leaving his resting-place,
proceeds again on his journey the next day, thus father,
mother, wife, and wealth are all but like a night's rest to
us--wise people do not cling to them forever."
Instead of simply despising this Indian view of life, might we not
pause for a moment and consider whether their philosophy of life is
entirely wrong, and ours entirely right; whether this earth was really
meant for work only (for with us pleasure also has been changed into
work), for constant hurry and flurry; or whether we, sturdy Northern
Aryans, might not have been satisfied with a little less of work, and
a little less of so-called pleasure, but with a little more of thought
and a little more of rest. For, short as our life is, we are not mere
may-flies, that are born in the morning to die at night. We have a
past to look back to and a future to look forward to, and it may be
that some of the riddles of the future find their solution in the
wisdom of the past.
Then why should we always fix our eyes on the present only? Why should
we always be racing, whether for wealth or for power or for fame? Why
should we never rest and be thankful?
I do not deny that the manly vigor, the silent endurance, the public
spirit, and the private virtues too, of the citizens of European
states represent one side, it may be a very important side, of the
destiny which man has to fulfil on earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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