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1though it is one and eternal, expresses itself in Time a^nd through the mind of man; therefore every Scripture must necessarily contain two elements, one temporary, perishable, belonging to the ideas of the period and country in which it was produced, the odief etern al and imperishable and applicable in all ages and countries] Moreover, in the state- ment of the Truth the actual form given to it, the syst em and arrangement, the meta physical and intellectual mould, the precise expression used must be largely subject to th^mutotions of Time and cease to have the ^Sie force; fprJthe human intellect modifies^ i^lf _ always; continually dividing and putting together it is obliged to shift its divisions continually and to rearrange its syntheses; it is always leaving old expression and symbol for new or, if it uses the old, it so changes its connotation or at least its exact content and association that we can never be quite sur^of understonding an a ncien t bo<^ j)f thisj^^ in the sense. aM_ spirit it tore to Jts confempqraries. What is of entirely permanent value is that which besides being imiversal has been experienced, lived and seen with a higher than the intellectual vision.
2I hold it th^efpre of small importance to extract from the Gita its exact metaphysical connotation as it was understood by the men of the time, — even if that were accurately possible. That it is not possible, is shown by the divergence of the original commentaries which have been and are still being written upon it; for they all agree in each dis- agreeing with all the others, each finds in the Gita its own system of metaphysics and trend of religious thought. Nor will even the most painstaking and disinterested scholarship and the most luminous theories of the historical development of Indian philosophy save us from inevitable error. But what we can do with profit is to seek in the Gita for the actual_lmng^ it contains, apart from their
3iMtaphysical form, to extract from ft what can help m or the world at large and to put it in the most natural and vital form and expression we can find that will be suitable to the mentality and help^l to the spiritual needs of our present-day humanity. No doubt in this attempt we may mix a good deal of error born of our own individuality and of the ideas in which we live, as did greater men before us, but if we steep ourselves in the spirit of this great Scripture and, above all, if we have tried to live in that spirit, we may be sure of finding in it as much real truth as we are capable of receiving as well as the ^spiritual_iniJuence and actual help OUR DEMAND AND NEED FROM THE GITA that, personally, we were intended to deriye.from it. And that is after all what Scriptures were written to give; the rest is academical disputation or theological dogma. Only those l^riptures, religions, pSilosophies which can be thus constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed in the inner thought and spiritual experience of a developing humanity^ ^ntinue to be of living importance to mankind. The rest remain a_s monuments of the pasj^ but have no actual force or vital impulse for the future.
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.
1though it is one and eternal, expresses itself in Time a^nd through the mind of man; therefore every Scripture must necessarily contain two elements, one temporary, perishable, belonging to the ideas of the period and country in which it was produced, the odief etern al and imperishable and applicable in all ages and countries] Moreover, in the state- ment of the Truth the actual form given to it, the syst em and arrangement, the meta physical and intellectual mould, the precise expression used must be largely subject to th^mutotions of Time and cease to have the ^Sie force; fprJthe human intellect modifies^ i^lf _ always; continually dividing and putting together it is obliged to shift its divisions continually and to rearrange its syntheses; it is always leaving old expression and symbol for new or, if it uses the old, it so changes its connotation or at least its exact content and association that we can never be quite sur^of understonding an a ncien t bo<^ j)f thisj^^ in the sense. aM_ spirit it tore to Jts confempqraries. What is of entirely permanent value is that which besides being imiversal has been experienced, lived and seen with a higher than the intellectual vision.
2I hold it th^efpre of small importance to extract from the Gita its exact metaphysical connotation as it was understood by the men of the time, — even if that were accurately possible. That it is not possible, is shown by the divergence of the original commentaries which have been and are still being written upon it; for they all agree in each dis- agreeing with all the others, each finds in the Gita its own system of metaphysics and trend of religious thought. Nor will even the most painstaking and disinterested scholarship and the most luminous theories of the historical development of Indian philosophy save us from inevitable error. But what we can do with profit is to seek in the Gita for the actual_lmng^ it contains, apart from their
3iMtaphysical form, to extract from ft what can help m or the world at large and to put it in the most natural and vital form and expression we can find that will be suitable to the mentality and help^l to the spiritual needs of our present-day humanity. No doubt in this attempt we may mix a good deal of error born of our own individuality and of the ideas in which we live, as did greater men before us, but if we steep ourselves in the spirit of this great Scripture and, above all, if we have tried to live in that spirit, we may be sure of finding in it as much real truth as we are capable of receiving as well as the ^spiritual_iniJuence and actual help OUR DEMAND AND NEED FROM THE GITA that, personally, we were intended to deriye.from it. And that is after all what Scriptures were written to give; the rest is academical disputation or theological dogma. Only those l^riptures, religions, pSilosophies which can be thus constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed in the inner thought and spiritual experience of a developing humanity^ ^ntinue to be of living importance to mankind. The rest remain a_s monuments of the pasj^ but have no actual force or vital impulse for the future.
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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