Great Minds on India

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The idea of compilation of what some of the celebrated thinkers and intellectual giants from the West think of ancient Indian wisdom and the time-tested teachings of our seers, is both timely and meaningful. For a milieu that can hardly fathom the depth of ancient philosophy and culture, and at a time when everything from the West seems to get accepted at face-value, this attempt to collect and collate some of the gems from the Western philosophers may not be misplaced after all.

To my mind, this treatise should be a precious possession of both who are unfamiliar with Indian value system and those who affirm by it. For, it should enable the Indians to look at themselves through the Western eyes as a means to rekindle their own belief that ancient wisdom and knowledge, as defined in our ancient scriptures, is not meant for circumscribing among the Indians alone but for disseminating among the entire mankind. As for the unfamiliar, this publication should help immensely in getting a glimpse of the unquestionable values and paths of salvation laid down in our Vedas, Upanishads, Gita and what have you.

It is a universally acknowledged fact that Vedas are the oldest known human documents in terms of religion, philosophy and literature. As we all are aware that Vedas offer priceless teachings to human life forever. The Vedas are invaluable documents of Indian sacred lore and learning which show the path of ultimate release from the human bondage through Righteousness, Self-knowledge and Surrender to the human soul. That the appeal of the Vedas cuts across all imaginable boundaries of Country and Age is understatement; in essence the ancient teachings truly belong to the humanity. A great American thinker Henry David Thoreau aptly opines -- 'In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism. It is of all ages, climes and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. 'This has been wonderfully brought home once again in this booklet through the adulation of the ancient wisdom by the Western thinkers and philosophers.

Viewed against this backdrop, the effort of the researcher is highly commendable. I am absolutely certain that this anthology of Western thoughts on Indian existential wisdom will serve its own purpose of reinforcing our own belief and, at the same time, dispelling doubts, if any, in the psyche of the non-Indians about the eternal values of life given to mankind by our seers.