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1The world abounds with sgdptum^ sacred and profane, with revelations and half-revelations, with religions and philosophies, ^cts and schools and systems. To these the man^T minds of a half-ripe Knowledge or no knowledge at all attach themselves with exclusiveness and passion and will have it that this or the other book is alone the eternal Word of God and all others are either impostures or at best imperfectly inspired, that this or that philosophy is the last word of the reasoning intellect and other systems are either errors or saved only by such partial truth in them as links them to the one true philosophical cult. Even the discoveries of physical Science have Iteen elevated into a creed and in its name religion and spirituality banned as ignorance and superstition, philosophy as frippe ry and moon- ffime. And to these bigoted exclusions and vain wranglings even the wise have often lent them- selves, misled by some spirit of darkness that has mingled with their light and overshadowed it with some cloud of intellectuaU^oism or spiritual pride. Mankind seems now indeed inclined to grow a little modester and wiser; we no longer slay our fellows in the napie of God's truth or because they have
2minds diflEerently trained or differently constituted from ours; we are less ready to curse and revile our neighbour because he is wicked or presumptuous enough to differ from us in opinion; we are ready even to admit that TruA is everywhere and cannot be our soie monopoly; we are beginning to look at other religions and philosophies for the truth and help they contain and no longer merely in order to damn them as false or criticise what we conceive to be their errors. But we are still apt to declare that our truth gives us the supreme knowledge which other religions or philosophies have missed or only imperfectly grasped so that they deal either with subsidiary and inferior aspects of the truth of things or can merely prepare less evolved minds for the heights to which we have arrived. And we are still prone to force upon ourselves or others the whole sacred mass of the book or gospel vh admire, insisting that all shall be accepted as eternally valid truth and no iota or underline or diaeresis denied its part of the plenary inspiration.
3It may therefore be useful in approaching an ancient Scripture, such as the Veda, Upanisha^ or Qita to indicate precisely the spirit in which we ^proach it and what exactly we think we may derive frpm it that is of value to humanity and its future^ Q’irst of all, tlwe is undoubtedly a Truth one and eternal which we are seeking, from which alX oth^r truth derives, by the light of which all other truth finds ii^ right place, ^lanation and relation to the scheme of knowledge^ But precisely OUR DEMAND AND NEED FROM THE GITA for that reaso n it ca nnot be s^t up in a single trenchant formuW^ U^ is not likely to be found in its entirety or in all its bearings in any single philosophy or scripture or uttered altogether and for ever by any one teacher, thinkerj prophet or AvitSr Nor has it been wholly found by us if ouiT view of it necessitates the intolerant exclusion of the truth underlying other systems; for when we reject passionately, we mean simply that we cannot appreciate and explain. Secondly, Truth,
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1The world abounds with sgdptum^ sacred and profane, with revelations and half-revelations, with religions and philosophies, ^cts and schools and systems. To these the man^T minds of a half-ripe Knowledge or no knowledge at all attach themselves with exclusiveness and passion and will have it that this or the other book is alone the eternal Word of God and all others are either impostures or at best imperfectly inspired, that this or that philosophy is the last word of the reasoning intellect and other systems are either errors or saved only by such partial truth in them as links them to the one true philosophical cult. Even the discoveries of physical Science have Iteen elevated into a creed and in its name religion and spirituality banned as ignorance and superstition, philosophy as frippe ry and moon- ffime. And to these bigoted exclusions and vain wranglings even the wise have often lent them- selves, misled by some spirit of darkness that has mingled with their light and overshadowed it with some cloud of intellectuaU^oism or spiritual pride. Mankind seems now indeed inclined to grow a little modester and wiser; we no longer slay our fellows in the napie of God's truth or because they have
2minds diflEerently trained or differently constituted from ours; we are less ready to curse and revile our neighbour because he is wicked or presumptuous enough to differ from us in opinion; we are ready even to admit that TruA is everywhere and cannot be our soie monopoly; we are beginning to look at other religions and philosophies for the truth and help they contain and no longer merely in order to damn them as false or criticise what we conceive to be their errors. But we are still apt to declare that our truth gives us the supreme knowledge which other religions or philosophies have missed or only imperfectly grasped so that they deal either with subsidiary and inferior aspects of the truth of things or can merely prepare less evolved minds for the heights to which we have arrived. And we are still prone to force upon ourselves or others the whole sacred mass of the book or gospel vh admire, insisting that all shall be accepted as eternally valid truth and no iota or underline or diaeresis denied its part of the plenary inspiration.
3It may therefore be useful in approaching an ancient Scripture, such as the Veda, Upanisha^ or Qita to indicate precisely the spirit in which we ^proach it and what exactly we think we may derive frpm it that is of value to humanity and its future^ Q’irst of all, tlwe is undoubtedly a Truth one and eternal which we are seeking, from which alX oth^r truth derives, by the light of which all other truth finds ii^ right place, ^lanation and relation to the scheme of knowledge^ But precisely OUR DEMAND AND NEED FROM THE GITA for that reaso n it ca nnot be s^t up in a single trenchant formuW^ U^ is not likely to be found in its entirety or in all its bearings in any single philosophy or scripture or uttered altogether and for ever by any one teacher, thinkerj prophet or AvitSr Nor has it been wholly found by us if ouiT view of it necessitates the intolerant exclusion of the truth underlying other systems; for when we reject passionately, we mean simply that we cannot appreciate and explain. Secondly, Truth,
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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