My Autobiography: A FragmentMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
My Autobiography: A Fragment
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Asianists -- Germany -- Biography; Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max), 1823-1900
And next to Germany, which was young and full of ideals when I was
young, there came India, and Indian thought which exercised their
quieting influence on me. From a very early time I became conscious of
the narrow horizon of this life on earth, and the purely phenomenal
character of the world in which for a few years we have to live and
move and have our being. As students of classical and other Oriental
history we come to admire the great empires with their palaces and
pyramids and temples and capitols. What could have seemed more real,
more grand, more likely to impress the young mind than Babylon and
Nineveh, Thebes and Alexandria, Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome? And now
where are they? The very names of their great rulers and heroes are
known to few people only and have to be learnt by heart, without
telling us much of those who wore them. Many things for which
thousands of human beings were willing to lay down their lives, and
actually did lay them down, are to us mere words and dreams, myths,
fables, and legends. If ever there was a doer, it was Hercules, and
now we are told that he was a mere myth!
If one reads the description of Babylonian and Egyptian campaigns, as
recorded on cuneiform cylinders and on the walls of ancient Egyptian
temples, the number of people slaughtered seems immense, the issues
overwhelming; and yet what has become of it all? The inroads of the
Huns, the expeditions of Genghis Khan and Timur, so fully described by
historians, shook the whole world to its foundations, and now the sand
of the desert disturbed by their armies lies as smooth as ever.
What India teaches us is that in a state advancing towards
civilization, there must be always two castes or two classes of men, a
caste of Brahmans or of thinkers, and a caste of Kshatriyas, who are
to fight; possibly other castes also of those who are to work and of
those who are to serve. Great wars went on in India, but they were
left to be fought by the warriors by profession. The peasants in their
villages remained quiet, accepting the consequences, whatever they
might be, and the Brahmans lived on, thinking and dreaming in their
forests, satisfied to rule after the battle was over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account