|
QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION
Question: What human trends in the West impressed you most and what distressed you most, and why so?
Answer: In the West, especially in the United States where I spent a full year of the year-and-a-half, there were many things which really impressed me as they would impress any visitor. The tremendous energy of the people, their hard work, the wonderful wealth that has been built up, their mastery of science and technology - all these are things that really strike a visitor.
But as you have implied in the question, there are also things that distress any visitor. One thing you find is materialism or worldliness in a big way. The philosophy that man pursues through the American civilization today, takes him to be an individual conditioned by his senses. Such a philosophy makes organic satisfactions the highest ideal of man. That is materialism in what you may call the crassest sense. During recent decades America has entered into this spirit of materialism in a big way. Man is just a body and bodily satisfactions are everything. In the beginning the result of this was fine. He became energetic, active and could express himself on the physical level. But at a later stage the evils began to manifest themselves.
Out of these evils have come what Americans call today the sex exploitation in America. Any visitor is struck by this dominance of sex. Similarly with crime. These are the two most prominent features of the American scene today: crime and sex. And it is difficult to give an idea of sex exploitation in the United States through this paltry words, so blatant and open it is. This is something very distressing. The glory of women as a spiritual person is ignored: only the flesh is in the market-place for sale. In industry and advertisement, in the papers, on the radio and everywhere, this has gone to extreme lengths today. There was a play in New York, in which sex was openly demonstrated on the stage itself without any kind of inhibition. Such things are going on even at the universities.
These are some of the features which really distress any visitor, especially from India with its very ancient cultural background and its spiritual understanding of the human personality. But these are only what came to me through newspapers, books and other things. My own personal contacts, on the other hand, were exceptionally fine, because I saw the best of America - students and teachers and citizens.
Question: Among the countries you visited did you come across some thinkers who are aware of the fact that the world's fundamental problem is that of the regeneration of man? If so, how did these people view the matter?
Answer: Yes, such sensitive thinkers I did come across. Not only in the United States this time, but also during my earlier visits to European countries- and in several countries of South America, South-east and Far-east Asia. There are people who are really appalled at the degradation of humanity in modern civilization. But one thing I noticed in the West: there is so little understanding of man in depth. There is not the philosophy that gives you a vision of man beyond his sense dimension. They are seeking for it, but they are not able to grasp it clearly. What I noticed, especially in the United States, is that when a write speaks about the foibles of society today, he is excellent. He gives a telling description of the troubles and sufferings of man today. But as soon as he begins to prescribe a remedy, it often turns out to be worse than disease. This is true in psychiatry and may other departments of world thought today. It is here that India's thought has something vital to contribute. Indian thought is not going to prescribe do's and don'ts; it simply opens up a new vision of human dignity and human glory. That is the greatness of Vedanta. When presented in this way it receives instant welcome and respect from thinking people in all these countries.
Question: How genuine is American interest in Vedanta? Are intellectuals also interested?
Answer: When they come to know of it they are deeply interested. It is not everyone that knows of it. But one good thing is worth noting: the Upanishads and Gita are subjects of study in several colleges and universities in the United States. In the United States and Canada alone, I visited and lectured at eighty four colleges and universities; and altogether, during the tour, I passed across students carrying the Upanishads in the text. Similarly with the Gita. They are studying it as a subject of real study. At Cleveland State University, I found a whole class studying the Mandukya Upanishad. Students were sitting informally here and there; they tape recorded the talks, so that they could use later. The professor, Prof. David Miller, was in Bhubaneshwar for a year and a half. He has great love for Indian thought. He almost lives a spiritual life. He was associated with the Swami in the Bhubaneshwar Ashram.
So there are such people who have come across Indian thought in a more intimate way and they are happy to convey the message of India to their students; and the students take deep interest in these courses of study. But very often they do not get the best teachers. Sometimes I saw flimsy ideas of Vedanta and Upanishads given to the students; but that is because they have not got the best type of teachers. However there is a tremendous interest in Indian thought, specially in the Vedanta, wherever they can find it.
|
After due editing, we will put up the questions and the answers in these columns for sometime for all to share.