Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives
Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives
entail the falsity of solipsism. Of course, you can reinterpret all this interms of solipsism. But the fact remains that the knowledge you require to livein this world and deal with it does not come to you from solipsism (i.e. frompersons, books, institutions, traditions, etc. that confirm that `all yourperceptions and this information how to understand and deal with yourperceptions are just your own idea'). Therefore your viewpoint is like aphilosophical parasite whose life fully depends upon the life of anotherphilosophy. How, then, can your philosophy be the real one?"THE POEM ABOUT THE TREE IN THE QUADComment by Suhotra SwamiNovember 10, 1995Vijnana das, in his most recent question, mentioned a philosophical poem about atree in the Oxford Quad. In my answer I cobbled an approximation of the poemtogether, but (ta-ra!) here is the real thing, written by Robert Knox, asrelated in a book called *Learning to Philosophize* by E.R. Emmet.The first part of the poem, representing solipsism, is:There was a young man who said, "GodMust think it exceedingly oddIf he finds that this treeContinues to beWhen there's no one about in the Quad."The second part, representing a refutation of solipsism based upon thephilosophy of Bishop George Berkeley which Srila Prabhupada also agrese with(see *Dialectical Spiritualism* pages 215-216):Dear Sir,Your astonisment's odd:I am always about in the Quad.And that's why the treeWill continue to be,Since observed byYours faithfully,God.WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS INTERESTED IN VEDICPHILOSOPHYQuestion from Gopinatha dasNovember 11, 1995I am now working on a french publication and we would like to find moreinformation about western philosophers interested in vedic philosophy.We have information about Thoreau, Emerson, Hegel. Amongst french writers therewas Malraux, Romain Rolland and Lamartine who showed interest.Can you please tell us about any other western personnalities who showed aninterest to the vedas ??I have heard that Einstein had an interest, but I do not have any exact quotefrom him.Schopenhauer was interested in budhism, did he showed any interest in the vedictradition also ??
Answer by Suhotra SwamiNovember 11, 1995About Einstein, if he had an interest in the Vedas, there is not much evidenceof it, not as much as Oppenheimer, who knew Sanskrit and quoted the Gita whenthe first A-bomb was tested. I believe Heisenberg read the Upanisads. But noneof these guys are considered to be philosophers, Einstein included. They arephysicists, mathematicians and scientists.Schopenhauer mentioned the Vedas in his writings. It appears he was moreinterested in Buddhism, as you have noted. About other recent-era Westernphilosophers, I don't know. There are some, like Berkeley and Heidegger forinstance, who speculated in ways that resemble specific Vedic teachings aboutconsciousness and the nature of being. But I am not aware of their directlygiving credit to the Vedic scriptures for inspiring their speculations. Since Iam currently preparing a book on Vedic answers to philosophical problems ofknowledge, I've been reading texts on Western philosophy lately. One is a bookcalled *The Existence of the World* by Reinhardt Grossmann. In a passage fromthis book, it becomes clear that Western philosophers have their own systém of*neti-neti* speculation."Existence, according to our view, is not a category: it is not an individualthing, nor is it a property, nor is it a relation, etc. But this means that itdoes not have a categorial property. Nor does it form a category of its own.The entity *entity* is not green, it has no shape, it is not higher in pitchthan anything, nor is it larger (in number) than something else, etc. etc. Inshort, the entity *entity* has no properties and stands in no relations to otherthings, or, as Hegel would say, it has no determinations. But this implies,according to Hegel's line of reasoning, that pure being is absolute negation,since it is *not* this, that or the other." (pages 123-124)*Neti-neti* means, of course, "not this, not this." The idea of pure beingexpressed here is an idea similar to impersonal Brahman. Perhaps Hegel borrowedthis line of negative speculation from the jnana Upanisads, and thus by hiswritings imported it into European thought. In any case, negative impersonalspeculation is now well-established in Western philosophy. Such a passage asthat quoted above does not need to mean that Mr. Grossmann personally has beenreading the Upanisads.In contrast to this, there is a trend of recent-era Western philosophy calledPersonalism. The term was first used in the USA by Bronson Alcott in 1863 andin France by Charles Renouvier in 1901. The main features of Personalism are 1)the individual living entity is the primary reality, and 2) Theism, which asopposed to Deism, says that God is both the transcendental cause of the world*as well as* beány the immanent divine presence throughout the world. Accordingto Personalists, the main social task is not to change the world but to changethe individual, to promote his personal self-perfection.But I don't find evidence of a direct connection between the European andAmerican Personalists and Vedic personalism, although the philosophicalprinciples are very similar. If you want to find out more about thesePersonalists, then investigate a journal called *Espirit*, founded in 1932,which propagated their message to the philosophical circles of France. I do notknow if it is still in publication.There is a definite relationship between ancient Greek philosophy and the Vedas.The oldest evidence of that relationship is traced in a book called *Early GreekPhilosophy and the Orient* by M.L. West, published by the Clarendon Press atOxford in 1971. Herein you will find details of how Vedic philosophy wasutilized by Pherecydes, Anaxmander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Hesiod, Homer,Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, and Empedocles. This book is *very* interesting and
- Page 17 and 18: ksatriya families worshiped Radha-K
- Page 19 and 20: are banished from Kailasa by being
- Page 21 and 22: always in competition with each oth
- Page 23 and 24: Was that enough, Bhakta Jan? No? OK
- Page 25 and 26: prakampanaloka-gurusrastaparasmai t
- Page 27 and 28: That's they quoted from me.In the c
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- Page 33 and 34: emember and speak the best that has
- Page 35 and 36: devotees, but I gave them as exampl
- Page 37 and 38: CAITANYA UPANISADQuestion from Mukh
- Page 39 and 40: for that. So that... This is going
- Page 41 and 42: A footnote to the previous text:It
- Page 43 and 44: other planets encircle the polestar
- Page 45 and 46: TIME PERCEPTIONQuestions from Rohit
- Page 47 and 48: Answer by Suhotra SwamiJune 27, 199
- Page 49 and 50: connected to the Lord's body. And B
- Page 51 and 52: - How to understand there was no cr
- Page 53 and 54: SB 6.14.55 p., 1st par.: The subtle
- Page 55 and 56: could not even get that. And they l
- Page 57 and 58: "Krsna is the supreme living being.
- Page 59 and 60: Answer by Suhotra SwamiSeptember 26
- Page 61 and 62: Answer by Suhotra SwamiOctober 11,
- Page 63 and 64: Vidyabhusana that argued yet anothe
- Page 65 and 66: SELF-ENVYQuestions from Vrajendra K
- Page 67: I was studying the second canto cha
- Page 71 and 72: Answer by Suhotra SwamiNovember 11,
- Page 73 and 74: ATHEISMQuestion from Jahnu dasNovem
- Page 75 and 76: two years old and under, in accorda
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- Page 79 and 80: 1) Yes, the message of Jesus is uni
- Page 81 and 82: Paul rationalized that Jesus surviv
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- Page 89: associates, etc. Lord Vamana has Hi
entail the falsity of solipsism. Of course, you can reinterpret all this interms of solipsism. But the fact remains that the knowledge you require to livein this world and deal with it does not come to you from solipsism (i.e. frompersons, books, institutions, traditions, etc. that confirm that `all yourperceptions and this information how to understand and deal with yourperceptions are just your own idea'). Therefore your viewpoint is like aphilosophical parasite whose life fully depends upon the life of anotherphilosophy. How, then, can your philosophy be the real one?"THE POEM ABOUT THE TREE IN THE QUADComment by <strong>Suhotra</strong> SwamiNovember 10, <strong>1995</strong>Vijnana das, in his most recent question, mentioned a philosophical poem about atree in the Oxford Quad. In my answer I cobbled an approximation of the poemtogether, but (ta-ra!) here is the real thing, written by Robert Knox, asrelated in a book called *Learning to Philosophize* by E.R. Emmet.The first part of the poem, representing solipsism, is:There was a young man who said, "GodMust think it exceedingly oddIf he finds that this treeContinues to beWhen there's no one about in the Quad."The second part, representing a refutation of solipsism based upon thephilosophy of Bishop George Berkeley which Srila Prabhupada also agrese with(see *Dialectical Spiritualism* pages 215-216):Dear Sir,Your astonisment's odd:I am always about in the Quad.And that's why the treeWill continue to be,Since observed byYours faithfully,God.WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS INTERESTED IN VEDICPHILOSOPHYQuestion from Gopinatha dasNovember 11, <strong>1995</strong>I am now working on a french publication and we would like to find moreinformation about western philosophers interested in vedic philosophy.We have information about Thoreau, Emerson, Hegel. Amongst french writers therewas Malraux, Romain Rolland and Lamartine who showed interest.Can you please tell us about any other western personnalities who showed aninterest to the vedas ??I have heard that Einstein had an interest, but I do not have any exact quotefrom him.Schopenhauer was interested in budhism, did he showed any interest in the vedictradition also ??
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