Transcultural Encounters Between Germany and India by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-317-93163-8
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Partial criticisms of Hindu culture and Theosophists

Despite his high praise of Indian spiritual achievements, Keyserling identified some problems in Hinduism and its culture. Yet his criticism of Hinduism differed from that of Indian social reformers in the nineteenth century. Social reform movements such as the Brāhmo Samaj (1828) of Raja Rammohan Roy and the Arya Samāj (1875) of Swami Dayānand Saraswatī emphasized monotheism, anti-idolatry, female equality in education, marriage by choice, and caste reform.60 In contrast, as already mentioned, Keyserling supported polytheism, and he did not address either caste reform or issues related to female equality. Instead, Keyserling’s criticisms of Hinduism were based upon Eurocentric criteria, such as practicality, activity, originality, and independent thought. On these points, he found the West to be superior to India. In addition, he chastised the Theosophists for distorting Indian ideas through their pro-Western and Anglo-Saxon biases. Yet in the end, he showed pragmatism and hermeneutical understanding in accepting that a degree of misinterpretation was unavoidable in cross-cultural adaptations.

First, Keyserling criticized the Indians for lacking practicality. During his 1912 talk in Shanghai, while praising Indians as having produced the “deepest thought so far,” he also reprimanded them for lacking an understanding of empirical reality, in contrast to the Chinese who did.61 The Hindus may know all about a life devoted to knowledge, but their knowledge does not necessarily lead to a better life. As philosophers, the Hindus have raised themselves “above empirical accident,” but their practical lives fall far short of “the soaring flight of their mind.”62 Philosophical meaning alone helps little in practical life. The Indians, unlike Westerners, had not mastered nature by learning how to exploit it. Similarly, he repeated the common racist stereotypes about the “passive Oriental.” He criticized the Indians for lacking initiative and (ironically) “like Christ,” regarding “gentleness as the highest virtue,” which made them even weaker.63 Their industry had never been more than “a fraction of that which the theory postulates.”64

Keyserling viewed this lack of practicality and industry among the Indians as being partly due to the idea of reincarnation. This idea not only deprives earthly life of its uniqueness, but it also makes people “indolent,” because they imagine thousands of years before them.65 This belief “in a massive, unalterable destiny” causes one to think life “as something external.”66 In contrast, Christians and Muslims who think they have only have this single life have to do their utmost, especially the Puritans who show a sense of urgency through their “own absolute autonomy.”67 This sense of urgency may be harsh, but it “steels him,” “crushes all sentimentality,” and “stirs the spirits of age.”68 Whereas Max Weber juxtaposed a “decisive” Protestant ethic with an “indecisive” Catholic ethic, Keyserling juxtaposed a “decisive” European ethic with an “indecisive” Indian ethic.

Second, Keyserling chastised Indian sages for striving only for realization, not for originality. Despite achieving advanced spiritual realization, they are merely “writers and thinkers, copyists and nothing more” and their style is trivial and lacks “vitality.”69 Despite “their god-like tolerance,” the Indians are “actually

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.