The Hindu View Of Life

 

Book : The Hindu View Of Life by Radhakrishnan

 

The ease with which Hinduism has steadily absorbad the customs and ideas of peoples with whom it has come into contact is as great as the difficulty we feel in finding a common feature binding together its different forms. But, if there is not a unity of spirit binding its different expressions and linking up the different periods of its history into one organic whole, it will not be possible to account for the achievements of Hinduism.

Page 12.

 

As the civilisation extended over the whole of India, it suffered many changes, but it kept up its continuity with the old Vedic type developed on the banks of the Sindhu. The term "Hindu" had originally a territorial and not a credal significance. It implied residence in a well-defined geographical area. Aboriginal tribes, savage and half-civilised people, the cultured Dravidians and the Vedic Aryans were all Hindus as they were the sons of the same mother. The Hindu thinkers reckoned with the striking fact that the men and women dwelling in India belonged to different communities, worshipped different gods and practised different rites.

                As if this were not enough, outsiders have been pouring into the country from the beginning of its history and some have made for themselves a home in India and thus increased the difficulty of the problem. How was Hindu society built up out of material so diverse, so little susceptible in many cases to assimilation and scattered across a huge continent measuring nearly two thousand miles from north to south and eighteen hundred miles from west to east? It cannot be denied that in a few centuries the spirit of cultural unity spread through a large part of the land and racial stocks of varying levels of culture become steeped in a common atmosphere. The differences among the sects of the Hindus are more or less on the surface and the Hindus as such remain a distinct cultural unit, with a common history, a common literature and a common civilisation. Mr. Vincent Smith observes, "India beyond all doubt possesses a deep underlying fundamental unity, far more profound than that produced either by geographical isolation or by political superiority. That unity transcends the innumerable diversities of blood, colour, language, dress, manners and sect."

Page, 13, 14.

 

There  has been no such thing as a uniform stationary unalterable Hinduism whether in point of belief or practice. Hinduism is a movement, not a position ; a process, not a result ; a growing tradition, not a fixed revelation. Its past history encourages us to believe that it will be found equal to any emergency that the future may throw up, whether on the field of thought or of history.

Page, 129, 130

 

पुस्तक – "स्वदेशी समाज", लेखक : रविन्द्रनाथ टैगोर

बहुलता में ऐक्य की उपलब्धि, वैचित्र्य के बीच ऐक्य-स्थापना, यही भारत वर्ष का अंतर्निहित धर्म है. भारत पार्थक्य को विरोध नहीं समझता, परकीय शत्रु नहीं समझता. बिना किसी का विनाश किये, एक बृहत व्यवस्था में सभी को स्थान देना चाहता है. सभी पंथों को वह स्वीकार करता है, अपने-अपने स्थान पर प्रत्येक का महात्म्य वह देख पाता है.

      भारत का यही गुण है, इसलिए किसी समाज को हम अपना विरोधी समझकर भयभीत नहीं होंगे. प्रत्येक नए संघात से अंततः हम अपने विस्तार की ही प्रत्याशा करेंगे. हिन्दू, बौद्ध, मुस्लमान और ईसाई भारत की भूमि पर युद्ध करके मरेंगे नहीं. यहाँ वे सामंजस्य ढूंढ सकेंगे. वह सामंजस्य अहिंदू नहीं, बल्कि विशेष रूप से हिन्दू होगा. उसके अंग प्रत्यंग चाहे देश विदेश के हों, उसका प्राण, उसकी आत्मा भारतीय होगी. 

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