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Swaveda - Articles - How Vedanta Came to the West
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By Swami Tathagatananda | Aug 18, 2005
The Bhagavad-Gita is universally known in India. It is reported to have been translated into 82 languages and it can safely be said that at least 65 or more of these are foreign languages. There is no missionary zeal behind the publication of the Bhagavad-Gita. It has been done by the people out of their sheer love for the non-dogmatic philosophy and depiction, in the Gita, of the entire human life---of its source and culmination in emancipation....
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| Comments | Peter Pratir Jul 16, 2004 - 14:53 PM (PT) [ 1 of 5 ]
This is absolutely fantastic collection of references of all the western lovers of Gita and Vedanta with exact dates etc. Thanks to Swaveda for bringing us this great piece of scholarly research.
Sridharan Srinivasan Jul 16, 2004 - 17:23 PM (PT) [ 2 of 5 ]
Good article. One question on T. S. Eliot though. Eliot is also often quoted by christians who say he was a christian apologist. He wrote a lot of books and essays on that subject. He even went on to claim that his God was a "jealous" God (whatever that means). So I'm not sure if his comments on the Gita are sincere.... (http://www.townhall.com/hall_of_fame/kirk/kirk182.html)
Peter Pratir Jul 16, 2004 - 17:49 PM (PT) [ 3 of 5 ]
Sridharan,
Please read this book about T S Eliot:
T.S. Eliot and Indic Traditions: A Study in Poetry and Belief
by Cleo McNelly Kearns
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; (July 1, 1987)
Anand Ramanujan Jul 28, 2004 - 23:00 PM (PT) [ 4 of 5 ]
There are many influential thinkers in the US like Emerson, Thoreau, Paine and others who were profounfly influenced by Eastern, in not Indic, thought. But in the current "conventional wisdom" America is a country supposedly founded on "Judeo-Christian" values. How can we explain this dichotomy?
Peter Pratir Jul 29, 2004 - 08:58 AM (PT) [ 5 of 5 ]
Anand, good observation!
I think this can be explained by the U-turn phenomenon. Many of eastern values have been taken into mainstream western culture and after a few generations, they no longer remain "eastern" or "Indic" values. Since East or Indic is still stereotyped as "mythic", "mystic" or "voodoo", it is safer for west to undefine itself from any association with East/Indic and redefine west as progressive/scientific/liberal etc.
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