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Orient in the occident Sir, Kindly allude : ''Clinton acknowledges India's greatness.'' by Lt Col R K Langer published in mail column Excerpt from the write-up'' Some of our great spiritual leaders like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahans, Yogananda spent considerable time in America teaching them what is in Indian spiritual heritage'' needs to be elucidated further, which I take the liberty of doing. As an intellectual influence, Hinduism has existed in America since the early Nineteenth Century. The New England Transcendentialists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman all read the Shrimad Bagavad Gita. Emerson even wrote a Hindu-inspired poem called ''Brahma'', and his transcendental philosophy includes elements that resonate with Hinduism, such as the idea of the 'Oversoul''. This early wave of Indian thought also influenced movements such as Theosophy and the Unity School of Christianity. At the very time when Americans were being exposed to Hindu thought, Vivekananda and other Hindu intellectuals in India were busy trying to respond to the criticism of the Western Missionaries that Hindu Faith was mythological and other-worldly. In this struggle the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta came to the forefront as the leading system of Hindu thought. Advaita Vedanta is a philosophy based on the Upanisads. According to Shankara, the best-known eight-century proponent of this philosophy, underlying this world of change and appearances there is an essential, unchanging Reality called Brahman. When referring to Brahman-within-the creature, Advanta uses the term ''Atman'' In Christian terminology, Atman is God Immanent; Brahman is God Transcendent. The goal of human life is to realize that our essential nature, our Atman, is identical with the unchanging Reality, Brahman. Meanwhile, before this occurs, our Atman is entangled in the world of appearances, and in our ignorance we superimpose on the world multiple interpretations of Reality. Hinduism arrived as a missionary movement in America when Vivekananda attended the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. There and subsequently he preached the universality of religious truth and attacked western materialism. He contended that while India needed this-worldly knowledge of the West, the West desperately needed the spiritual wisdom that India had to offer, a wisdom which emphasised the need for a real experiential encounter with God over against dogma. The Ramakrishana Order founded by Swami Vivakananda in 1897 has given America many distinguished monks. Swami Akhilananda, head of the Vedanta centre in Boston, was noted for his work in the psychology of religion, Swami Nikhilananda established the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre in Manhattan in 1933, and lectured in New York city.. The author of many books, he attracted famous disciples, including Margaret Woodrow Wilson, daughter of the US President, and the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. None, however, has exceeded in reputation Swami Prabhananda for many years head of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. In the late 1930s he attracted such well-known writers as Gerald Heard, Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood, who were living in Los Angeles. His published works include ''The Sermon on the Mount according to Vedanta, translations with Christopher Isherwood of the Bagavad Gita, ''The Crest Jewel of Discrimination by Shankara, and a translation of the Yogas Sutras of Patanjali. In collaboration with Federick Manchester, he produced a translation of the Upanishads. Thomas Merton's first encounter with the Orient was his reading of Aldous Huxleys ''Ends and Means'' in the late 1930s. The book had a profound influence on Merton. Not only did it introduce him to mysticism, but also facilitated his conversion to Catholicism. Raimon Panikkar, former Professor of the History of Religions at the University of California (1971-1987) was familiar with the work of the Ramakrishna Order and made extensive use of Advaita Vedanta in his erudite writings aimed at bringing Hindus and Christians closer together. Advaita vedanta offers a new understanding to the Americans of their traditional religions without requiring that they be left behind. Yours etc.... |
