PART ONE
Greco-Buddhism refers to the
cultural syncretism between Hellenistic
culture and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BCE and
the 5th century CE in Bactria and the Indian subcontinent,
corresponding to the territories of modern day Afghanistan, India,
and Pakistan. It was a cultural consequence of a long chain of
interactions begun by Greek forays into India from the time of Alexander
the Great, carried further by the establishment of the Indo-Greek
Kingdom and extended during the flourishing of the Hellenized Kushan
Empire. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic, and perhaps the spiritual
development of Buddhism, particularly Mahayana Buddhism. With the
collapse of the hegemony of the Greco - Bactria in 125 BC, the mobilization of
the Greeks of Bactria to India favored contacts with the established Buddhist
communities and introduced new dimensions of commercial interdependence between
Greek and non-Greek populations. When finally Greeks in the region lost their
power, this did not affect the Hellenistic culture which continued to exert its
influence in Asia for several centuries. For example, the construction of
statues with refractory clay or putty and supporting timber frame (rods drivers
for hands), was a great novelty of the Bactrian Greek artists who left the long
imprint on Buddhist art. The legacy of Alexander finds expression in unusual
Greek - Buddhist sculptures Gandaras that from the time of Kusan have all
predominant Buddhist character. The form of the Buddha as the Apollo Belvedere,
although "one among countless known forms, is without doubt the oldest,
which served as a model for others "while nudity remarkable sculptures of
Tzainists probably had as a model Apollonic archetypes. During the first centuries
of the millennium, the Greek-Buddhist art Gandarini included Indian and
Hellenistic elements. This is distinct to the statues of botisattvas (Buddhas
in scene) that were decorated with royal jewels and amulets, the contrapposto
standing with emphasis in the folds of the dresses and the abundance Dionysian
themes. However, we should bear in our mind that the Greek-Buddhist art did not
appear suddenly, but emerge as a byproduct of a continuous exchange of
materials, language and cultural specificities between Indo-Greeks, Indians and
Persians and the Greeks of Bactria They had attracted many to Buddhism, there
would be among them a significant number of Buddhists among the Greeks donors
and Hellenized intellectuals and artists.
Despite the distinct similarities, no case is the model for the
others, while the novel character and stunning expression of Greco-Buddhist art
obviously would not be possible without the contribution of two equally
important traditions. The edited image Hellenistic themes in Buddhist art is
not likely to be the result of impersonal leased Greek artists who should have
been asked by their employers to insist more on issues Buddhist tradition. In
the reliefs of Gandaras there is an orgy of decoration with light snapshots
Dionysian competition which do not correspond to the renunciation of the early
Buddhism of Sravaka (Sanskr. Śrāvaka, listeners or disciples of the Buddha).
While the portrait of the historical Shakyamuni representing the birth of the
side of his mother, a popular topic in Gandarini art seems to have visual
adaptation to the birth of Dionysus from the buttock of Zeus.
We note that the interactions between cultures do not require
strictly symmetrical processes between independent entities. The Hellenistic
Buddhism is not a self-evident unity, but the side effect of a reconstruction
of horizons, neither exclusively Indian, nor only Greek. The transmission of
ideas and practices across historical periods and conceptual fields, introduced
mutations between the source and target culture. Undoubtedly, innovations occur
when the expressions of a tradition restructured organic according to the
internal logic of another, an event that stimulated growth without requiring
the assignment assumption foreign elements, nor the radical departure from the
traditional representation models, but the review of perception the
possibilities that emerge from a cultural environment that basically makes
possible merger. Buddhism emerged from the cocoon of the Indian, after meeting
with the cosmopolitan culture of the Greek Macedonians, who were open to
foreign traditions and cults and thought, like Buddhists, death as a passage in
a later life. And as Buddhists were constructing funerary monuments instead of
godifying their churches and their leaders. There were many deities were of
particular importance for Macedonians who found corresponding to worship the
pantheon of Mahayana tradition of Buddhism. It is useful to study how the
Hellenistic polytheism internationalism had contributed to the spread of
globalization and the expression of the theology of Buddhist traditions in the
north, forming a pantheon of Buddhas and Hellenized morphological botisattvas,
who, like the Olympian gods and demigods, had their own mythical stories and
sported distinct spiritual markers and natural features.
The economic interdependence, geographic proximity and socio -
political factors determine as intrusive main reasons the shaping of Buddhism
in Hellenistic Far East. Moreover, intercultural meetings between Indo - Greeks
and Buddhists were the result of effortless and asymmetric ownership knowledge
gave way to a new interpretation models in historical times. By
"effortless" recognize that both communities had served in different
opportunities and alternating density, an open demonstration of cultural
superiority and applied resistance by specifying the different ways as
barbarian or foreign (mleccha). However no evidence of religious conflicts and
pressures that were motivated by the Indo - Greek and Buddhist missionaries.
Instead discern cultural proselytism circumstances a voluntary association
facilitated by trade. There is no reason to display the Roman influence as
crucial in creating the Greco-Buddhist art, except that it had existed a sense
of renewal and rejuvenation trends.
And finally, the kind of exchanges that occurred between Greeks
and Buddhists were asymmetric in the sense that neither the cultural
proselytism, nor the effects of the conscious or unconscious actions are
distributed equally or equally in front of the law to the ideological and
materialistic culture that prevailed. Moreover, the mundane reality of two or
more people who share and borrow practices, ideas and customs, not what is
disputed. Rather it is the result of a cross-cultural stratification function
to our attention that affected the formation, transfer and expression of
religious knowledge in different areas and seasons between East and West, West
and East.
Several philosophers, such as Pyrrho, Anaxarchus and
Onesicritus, are said to have been selected by Alexander to accompany him in
his eastern campaigns. During the 18 months they were in India, they were able
to interact with Indian ascetics, generally described as Gymnosophists
("naked philosophers"). Pyrrho (360-270 BCE) returned to Greece and
became the first Skeptic and the founder of the school named Pyrrhonism. The
Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius explained that Pyrrho's equanimity and
detachment from the world were acquired in India. Few of his sayings are
directly known, but they are clearly reminiscent of sramanic, possibly
Buddhist, thought: "Nothing really exists, but human life is governed by
convention... Nothing is in itself more this than that". The close
association between Greeks and Buddhism probably led to exchanges on the
philosophical plane as well. Many of the early Mahayana theories of reality and
knowledge can be related to Greek philosophical schools of thought. Mahayana
Buddhism has been described as the "form of Buddhism which (regardless of
how Hinduized its later forms became) seems to have originated in the
Greco-Buddhist communities of India, through a conflation of the Greek
Democritean-Sophistic-Skeptical tradition with the rudimentary and unformalized
empirical and skeptical elements already present in early Buddhism"
(McEvilly, "The Shape of Ancient Thought", p503).
In the Prajnaparamita, the rejection of the reality of passing
phenomena as "empty, false and fleeting" can also be found in Greek
Pyrrhonism. The perception of ultimate reality was, for the Cynics as well
as for the Madhyamakas and Zen teachers after them, only accessible through a
non-conceptual and non-verbal approach (Greek Phronesis), which alone allowed
to get rid of ordinary conceptions. The mental attitude of equanimity and dispassionate outlook in
front of events was also characteristic of the Cynics and Stoics, who called it
"Apatheia". Nagarjuna's dialectic developed in the Madhyamaka can be
paralleled to the Greek dialectical tradition.
CYNICISM, MADHYAMAKA AND ZEN
Numerous parallels exist between the Greek philosophy of the
Cynics and, several centuries later, the Buddhist philosophy of the Madhyamika
and Zen. The Cynics denied the relevancy of human conventions and opinions
(described as typhos, literally "smoke" or "mist", a
metaphor for "illusion" or "error"), including verbal
expressions, in favor of the raw experience of reality. They stressed the
independence from externals to achieve happiness ("Happiness is not
pleasure, for which we need external, but virtue, which is complete without
external" 3rd epistole of Crates). Similarly the Prajnaparamita, precursor
of the Madhyamika, explained that all things are like foam, or bubbles,
"empty, false, and fleeting", and that "only the negation of all
views can lead to enlightenment" (Nāgārjuna, MK XIII.8). In order to evade
the world of illusion, the Cynics recommended the discipline and struggle
("askēsis kai machē") of philosophy, the practice of
"autarkia" (self-rule), and a lifestyle exemplified by Diogenes,
which, like Buddhist monks, renounced earthly possessions. These conceptions,
in combination with the idea of "philanthropia" (universal loving
kindness, of which Crates, the student of Diogenes, was the best proponent),
are strikingly reminiscent of Buddhist Prajna (wisdom) and Karuṇā (compassion).
Another of these philosophers, Onesicritus, a Cynic, is said by
Strabo to have learnt in India the following precepts: "That nothing that
happens to a man is bad or good, opinions being merely dreams. ... That the
best philosophy [is] that which liberates the mind from [both] pleasure and
grief")
Intense westward physical exchange at that time along the Silk
Road is confirmed by the Roman craze for silk from the 1st century BCE to the
point that the Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing
of silk, on economic and moral grounds. This is attested by at least three
authors: Strabo (64/ 63 BCE–c. 24 CE), Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BCE–65 CE),
Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE). The aforementioned Strabo and Plutarch (c. 45–125
CE) also wrote about Indo-Greek Buddhist king Menander, confirming that
information about the Indo-Greek Buddhists was circulating throughout the
Hellenistic world.
Another century later the Christian church father Clement of
Alexandria (died 215AD) mentioned Buddha by name in his Stromata (Bk I, Ch XV):
"The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number of the other barbarian
philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanæ
and others Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanæ who are called
"Hylobii" neither inhabit cities, nor have roofs over them, but are
clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands.
Like those called Encratites in the present day, they know not marriage nor begetting
of children. Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha (Βούττα)
whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine
honours."
Buddhist gravestones from the Ptolemaic period have also been
found in Alexandria in Egypt, decorated with depictions of the Dharma wheel.
The presence of Buddhists in Alexandria at this time is important, since
"It was later in this very place that some of the most active centers of
Christianity were established". The pre-Christian monastic order of the
Therapeutae is possibly a deformation of the Pāli word "Theravāda," a
form of Buddhism, and the movement may have "almost entirely drawn (its)
inspiration from the teaching and practices of Buddhist asceticism". They
may even have been descendants of Asoka's emissaries to the West. The
philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene, from the city of Cyrene where Magas of Cyrene
ruled, is sometimes thought to have been influenced by the teachings of Aśoka's
Buddhist missionaries.
Zarmanochegas (Zarmarus) (Ζαρμανοχηγὰς) was a monk of the Sramana
tradition (possibly, but not necessarily a Buddhist) who, according to ancient
historians such as Strabo and Dio Cassius, met Nicholas of Damascus in Antioch
while Augustus (died 14 CE) was ruling the Roman Emprire, and shortly thereafter
proceeded to Athens where he burnt himself to death. His story and tomb in
Athens were well-known over a century later. Plutarch (died 120 AD) in his Life
of Alexander, after discussing the self-immolation of Calanus of India
(Kalanos) witnessed by Alexander writes: "The same thing was done long
after by another Indian who came with Caesar to Athens, where they still show
you "the Indian's Monument," referring to Zarmanochegas' tomb in
Roman Athens.
Although the philosophical systems of Buddhism and Christianity
have evolved in rather different ways, the moral precepts advocated by Buddhism
from the time of Ashoka through his edicts do have some similarities with the
Christian moral precepts developed more than two centuries later: respect for life,
respect for the weak, rejection of violence, pardon to sinners, tolerance.
One theory is that these similarities may indicate the
propagation of Buddhist ideals into the Western World, with the Greeks acting
as intermediaries and religious syncretists.
"Scholars have often considered the possibility that
Buddhism influenced the early development of Christianity. They have drawn
attention to many parallels concerning the births, lives, doctrines, and deaths
of the Buddha and Jesus" (Bentley, "Old World Encounters").
The story of the birth of the Buddha was well known in the West,
and possibly influenced the story of the birth of Jesus: Saint Jerome (4th
century CE) mentions the birth of the Buddha, who he says "was born from
the side of a virgin".
The similarity between Greek and Indian thought
The empirical world as a reflection of the true.
Proportions in the Platonic and Upanishad reflection.
The Indian thought, throughout the long history, characterized
by the belief that behind streaming phenomena there is something imperishable
and the Absolute, which for his knowledge and realization, the Indian esoteric
tradition devoted to exclusive care. That something which Indians call Brahman,
Supreme Spirit alone Reality, Unborn, eternal, self-existent, Unlimited,
Unspecified are incomprehensible outside categories of cognition and not
subject to any determination. Both the Vedas and the Upanishads deal with the
rush of Brachman. All Indian spiritual teachers are enthusiastic students and
disciples of the Upanishads. They are written in Sanskrit language and
translation and the transmission of their meanings is difficult, especially for
the Western world.
Sri Aurobindo states that university education is not enough, so
it can lead to errors and alterations, criticizing Professor Max Muller, who
tried to make a translation of "Oriental holy books", which in their
study - says The Aurobindo - "man surpasses the level of thinking of the
empirical world and ascends to the knowledge of the Absolute, the Eternal and
unending." The Upanishads inspired every religion and philosophical system
of the world. This is particularly the case with Greek philosophy as well as
among them there are striking similarities, which cannot be accidental. There
must be some relationship between the Upanishads with the Ionian sages,
Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Megasthenis, Herodotus and Plato. It seems that the
above philosophers and other Greeks and Romans, had joined the Indian
philosophy, the wisdom of the Vedas and Upanishads.
Special similarities exist in the books of Plato: Timaeus,
State, Phaedrus, Phaedo, Theaititos, Parmenides etc. Both Plato and the
Upanishads, discard the experience of the senses - that leads to the phenomenal
world, the world of shadows as described in the State in the myth of the cave -
with which man acquires only an impression (glory) while the other path, that
of the mind leads to Knowledge (Science).
As in the Platonic texts, we have two kinds of knowledge: the
lower where the experience leads to beleiving, and the higher where the
uplifting of the mind leads to the "Knowledge", so in the Upanishads
we are inferior to the phenomenal world, or paranidya, and superior to Brahman,
or aparavidya. Plato, like the Upanishads, turns thinking and searching the
world of experience to another imaginary world, "where the soul will look
back and remember the immortal and eternal ideas."
Before men become aware of this reality, both in Plato and the
Upanishads are like sleeping! In the project "Menon" Plato describes humans
like "sleepwalker chasing ghosts" and the cation Upanishads, the Yama
shouts to his student: "Awake, and take lighting." We find both Light
as a symbol and as an image to denote sulfur, in Platonic texts and the
Upanishads. In State, the sun, the light
of the experience world is likened to the "Good" or
"Divine" the world of Ideas. The Upanishads use similarly light as
symbol when referring to the Absolute Being, Brahman. In Tsantogia Upanishad we
read:
"The Brahman is the sun of the universe." "The
visible sun is the (apparent) form of Brahman"
AND SVETASVATARA UPANISHADS:
"Like the sun with flash illuminates all the space up, down
and across, so adorable and one god, the guardian of all goodness and
greatness, dominates any Cause."
This light, the Platonic word is a lamp to illuminate the inner
"self" and become known beyond the narrow "I" (know
thyself). This "Self" beyond the narrow ego is the reflection of
society and of the ideas and the supreme Idea, the "Good" to which is
related and from which the Enlightened One is attracted
to the "memory" and the " love "(Menon, Alcibiades,
Symposium). In the Upanishads the same search dominates.
The man to know the ultimate truth must feel and experience Brahman - "the light that illuminates all beings",
the first substance that is beyond intellect - and to live the union with the
Atman. Rejection of empirical knowledge turned to cognition is found almost
invariant in the State. For Plato, the world of experience is the "shadow
of reality." In the myth of the cave, people are shackled with their back
to the light and know only the shadows projected as ghosts on the wall in front
of them. But when they will be free and will look to the true light, "will
be left dazzled by its great luster."
The Svetasvatara Upanishad speaks of maya, «spiritual blindness
which has no real knowledge or vidya» (excerpt from "Plato and
Upanishads," B. Vitsaxis). The Svetasvatara Upanishad tells us about maya,
«the illusion" of the empirical world. In cation Upanishads speak of
darkness into which man plunges the avidya (spiritual blindness or ignorance)
and into which emerges as the ghost world of maya.
"As one can see that a dream and a magic is not real, or
even a city in heaven,one can see the
entire universe is not true, the Upanishads, the Wise."
(Manduca Upanishads)
"One should know that Nature is illusion, maya»
(Svetasvatara Upanishads)
Most of us find it very difficult to maintain at all times an
awareness of the limitations and relativity of the world experience. The models
of reality that we create with our thoughts - because this is the easiest down
a procedure - lead us to consider them as the only elements of reality and so
complacent in their plausibility. One of the main objectives of the Upanishads
is precisely the exemption from the above confusion and error. In cation
Upanishad we read:
"Whoever heard what is not heard, will catch this which is
not caught, whoever see what is not seen, whoever taste and smell what does not
taste and smell, what has no beginning and end, what is the largest and the
smallest yet, he will be freed from the chains of death "
The description of the Divine and Absolute (or Divine Wisdom and
Science) with reason, or rather, the linguistic symbols, was recognized as
something impossible from Plato, Timaeus and the Seventh Letter to Dion.
Timaeus says:
"It's difficult to find the Creator and Father of the
universe, and when yet figured out, it is impossible to speak about Him."
As a way of expressing the transcendent, both Plato and the
Upanishads resort to the apophatic method. In trying to make a comparison, we
chose two similar texts. In Parmenides, Plato argues:
"Neither any reason nor any name belongs to this. Why it is
neither the whole nor parts. It is neither straightforward nor cyclical. It is
neither within nor another thing to himself. It is neither in motion nor at
rest. It is neither identical nor different. It is neither straight nor unequal
with something else. It is neither in the past nor in the present nor in the
future. "
This refusal (to something) does not necessarily mean the
absence. The fact that something is neither so nor otherwise, nor this nor
that, does not mean that something does not exist, but that it is something
else, elusive and incomprehensible by the senses. This determination with
reference to the Imperishable, the Absolute, Brahman, in the Upanishads and is named in the
Sanskrit dictum neti-neti, which means neither-nor. In Brchantaranyaka
Upanishad we read:
"The indestructible is neither coarse nor fine, neither
short nor long, neither glamorous (like fire) nor fluid (like water). Without
shadow, without darkness, without air, without space, without resistance to the
touch, without smell, without taste, without eyes, without ears, without voice,
without wind, without energy, without breath, without mouth, without counting,
without interior, without overseas. "
However, people want to talk about this supreme Truth and so the
Indians, with their characteristic ability to wrap everything in a veil of
myth, showed the Brachman like a divine entity. With special place in the
sacred texts and Indian poems, place it in its deepest essence of all the gods
and goddesses they worship it while they
point out and clarify that all gods and goddesses are nothing but His
own reflection. In Brchantaranyaka Upanishad we read:
"People say: Believe in that God, believe in this Goddess
and right. Because every god and every goddess were created by Brahman and
Brahman is all the gods. "
The manifestation of Brahman at the level of the human soul is
called Atman (or theosophical terminology, inner self). The myth of Indra and
Virotsana referred to Chantogya Upanishads illuminates nicely the fact that we
need proper and persistent quest to understand the nature of the inner self,
the Atman. The inner self, the Atman, our Upanishads say, not to be confused
with the body - that is only temporary residence - nor with the various levels
of experience. This way one identifies with the body, the swing between
pleasure and pain. When you get rid of the wrong of that identification, you no
longer feel neither pleasure nor pain. When you get the true knowledge, the
inner self realizes its nature as self-consciousness and bliss. In one
Upanishad we read:
"The wise spirit is not born nor dies. He has not come from
nowhere. Unborn, immutable, eternal, archetypal not killed when the body dies.
"
In the Upanishads, the eminently "connoisseur" is the
Atman, identical as the "Mind" in Plato, "which although hidden,
is present as a God-given spark tying bow bright soul with the eternal."
It is still remarkable for the parallelism that the myth of creation, in the
Timaeus, "Mind in man" has the value of the "Mind the World
Soul." As for the bright arc state on MOUNTAKI Upanishad we read:
"The bow is the syllable OM, the arrow is the Atman, Brahman is the
target." In Taitrigia Upanishads, the self consists of five layers
(koshas) which follow one another from the outside inwards and the lower and
more ylovari, to the upper and thinner. These different layers or sheaths
closed as in a cage, not only inside ourselves but also in general polymorph
hidden Brahman must be removed one to one so that the last inner layer to be
nude "like rice by the successive peels '.
In the Republic, Plato says:
"The soul resembles Glaucus, the god of the sea that is
glued onto the clams, seaweed and stones, so that no one finds it difficult to
recognize it."
The Platonic conception of the soul, along with the doctrine
that the purpose of philosophy and of true knowledge is the cleaning of the
lower layers, its symbolic gravel and clams, the exemption of that from the
physical desires, "so that it can Fly Free to the world of the true.
"
The many similarities with the Upanishads, hitherto mentioned,
make us think of Eusebius 315p.Ch. He speaks of a "tradition" which
attributes the Aristoxenos, the well-known writer "on Harmonics" and
student of Aristotle, according to which Indians Sages actually visited Athens
and talked with Socrates. Reference to visit Indian Elders in Athens even
contained a quote from Aristotle that was rescued from Diogenes Laertius. The time did not
distinguish between East and West.
COMPARISON OF WELFARE OF PLOTINUS WITH HINDU
DHARMA
A typical example to demonstrate the existence of a common
Indo-European base in India and Greco-Roman thought is comparing the Hindu
Dharma by Provident theory of the philosopher Plotinus. The labeling of
additional common sense and structural characteristics of the philosophy of the
founder of the Neo-Platonic school of Indian philosophy, shows how direct the
action to likeness with the divine through metaphysical thought and moral
formation of people.
Typical is the possibility that emerged from the surveys
on the Indo-European theory to determine the existence of an ancient corpus
doctrines and perceptions expressed by Neoplatonism while undetected in many
societies and cultures of the ancient world. An important concept that comes
from this "common culture" of antiquity is the Hindu Dharma, which
corresponds to the concept of Providence, as elaborated philosophical and
religious Plotinus in the 3rd century AD With Dharma and welfare emphasis on
respect in a world order as an expression of a divine plan, defines the duties
of man in the natural and social reality. These, like other concepts from the
tradition of the school of Plotinus and Indian philosophy, concern metaphysics
and cosmology, based on forms of a high morality. In the Indian philosophy this
one even recognizes metaphysical differentiation of people, as shown by the
cosmogony of the Vedas, especially the hymn Purusha souks.
Usually, when referring to the Eastern influence in the
work of Plotinus, is noted that the thought
falls clearly in the earlier Greek tradition, especially in the
Aristotelian and Platonic thought.
However, many Western scholars with pioneering perhaps William Jones,
argued that it was impossible to read the Vedanta and not believe that Pythagoras and Plato raised
high theories from the same source as the sages of India. German Indology of
the 18th and 19th century were bodies and followers of the ancient culture of
reality that had come to them.
It is so easy to recognize similarities of the aristocratic and
classical quality thinking of the ancient Indians .
A position on the matter is that the Welfare of Plotinus refers
to Hindu Dharma. The Indian term dharma cannot be translated simply as
piety. In Indian thought and Plotinus
the world is not a product of coincidence. As the Welfare of Plotinus, so the
Dharma connect the skilled and faithful to the divine order. Celestial bodies
as deities and parts of the whole as a living organism of Plotinus, reminiscent
of divine entities, which the first great Indian philosophical system to study
the Dharma, the Pourva Mimamsa, assumes that they exist. The meaning of dharma
has a superstitious importance, such as Providence and harmony of the whole of
Plotinus concerning the magical thinking, as all parts of the world interact
with each other, are based on the proportions (favorite of all). Although
Plotinus did not lead to the introduction of rituals embedded in these
proportions, his successors and heirs will do this step .
Many of the insights of Plotinus are similar to the thought of
the Bhagavad Gita, which is part of the great epic Machamparata. The meaning of
Dharma often appears in Bhagavad Gita to involve various roles, such as cousin,
brother, father or mother. The dilemma of the hero Arjuna is that the battle
must take into account both the Dharma of his family, and his own Dharma as a
warrior. For Indian thought, if you escape from the laws of dharma world
becomes chaotic, and those who break the Dharma of family and caste cause the
forces of destruction.
The Dharma falling on each individual person and creature brings
together a superior destiny and purpose. Similarly, Plotinus experiencing a
personal experience he believed more than ever that it belonged to a higher
destiny, wondering how his soul again found the body "itself." He
used the last term, because he thought that the soul is like the gold in the
mire, which never falls entirely from the world of the imaginary to the world
of matter. Even in the Mahabharata is said that the true Dharma is hidden in a
dark cave, that is in the heart. With the myth of the cave of (neo) Platonic
considered mutatis mutandis that the truth is hidden from the observable
universe. The Indian thought is not limited to action and Plotinus saw acting
as a shadow theory. Direct contact with the incarnate-revealed wisdom is absent
from the work of Plotinus, but there is in Christianity.
Still, the image of the tree in the inverted form of the root in
heaven and its branches on earth describing Plotinus in his treatise "On
Welfare" is similar to the Indian tradition. This picture for Plotinus
symbolizes the concentration of everything in a module, which is the principle
of the One. Plotinus aims to show the existence of a life of the whole that has
the capacity to grow branches without losing the individual being within. The
tree which was mentioned in the Indian religion was called eternal Asvatha and
refers to the living universe as being an aspect of Brahman, while individual
deities correspond to the branches. The experience of man immersed in this
immense tree, the only possibility to drive in redemption and deified is to
become the source of the whole. As Plotinus insisted on the universe of
eternity which reflects the cosmic tree, thus in the Bhagavad Gita Asvatha was
referred as indestructible, upturned, whose form is not broken down in the
observable universe, neither the beginning, nor the end. Quite possibly the
transfer of the cosmic tree is dictated by the frequent use of another
transport such as sun rays.
END OF PART ONE.
PART TWO
THE
"AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE» (RASA) IN INDIAN TRADITION
THE TERM "AESTETICS" applies to most of us primarily
as a philosophical category, the domain of coextensive with the historic scope
of the term "philosophy": a tradition rather coherent inaugurated in
ancient Greek city, continues the medieval Christian world and results in the
newer European -and, from a point onwards, North-American- thought. Its
language is in principle Greek and Latin, with the subsequent contribution of
German and Saxon languages. It is understood that other cultures, despite the
undeniable contribution in various fields, did not produce something that is
entitled to the name 'philosophy'. This position is now contested by many
sides; certainly the crisis depends on exactly how we define the term
"philosophy", however in general we can say that is wrong. If at
least a part of Christian theology has obvious position on a comprehensive
history of philosophical ideas, nothing prevents us to talk -for examble- for
Arabic, Indian, Tibetan or Indian philosophy. The reluctance to do our due only
to an implicit assumption, namely that a deficit of rationality (supposedly)
paradoxically plagues all non-European peoples, which retroactively legitimizes
the military, technological and economic dominance of the Europeans.
Today, that is difficult to explicitly say this without
incurring the accusation of racism, this old colonial ideology has been changed
in the terms of "irreducible difference ': these civilizations are in any
event different, altogether foreign to us, and since the worldview presupposes
given understanding concepts and ways of thinking follows that represent
something hermetically impenetrable for the European consciousness - something
which we in practice ignore. The concept of difference, axis of an extensive
field of discussions identified with philosophical postmodernism of today, is
not less metaphysical than the theological meaning of quite another, which
constitutes its most direct ancestor. If we refuse to place the principle
dualistic ontology of Plato, and a certain monotheistic tradition, we realize
that nothing in the large community of real science is quite different to
something else: nothing is absolutely identical with himself, absolutely
nothing different from everything else, everything is already cracked and already
complex mediated in countless ways. In the field of history this applies much
more clearly. Understanding between cultures is not initiated without
preconditions and especially today; the mediations are already many
successively scaled - missionaries, colonialism, travel literature, social
anthropologists, alternative movements with exotic spiritual research- creating
a densely networked background for new comparative conceptualizations. It is
also educative that for them the "others" Western culture is far from
most other: African, Arab, Indian, Chinese, Japanese scholars studying
intensively today western science, Marxism, phenomenology, the neopragmatism,
psychoanalysis, the metastructuralism and consider self-evident that they have
to incorporate them in their own tradition and in their own frame of mind. If
Westerners refuse to do the same, only due to spiritual sloth this is resulting
from the arrogance of their practical power.
In cultures that developed impressive artistic traditions are
expected to meet some kind of aesthetic reflection, regardless of what form it
is or how far it has survived to us. And when it comes to cultures also
developed elaborate and centuries-old textual traditions, it becomes much more
likely to encounter an organized aesthetic thinking with the meaning it has for
us the term - thinking that sets similar to our own problems and oriented in
related or similar answers. The Indian culture is probably the most wonderful
such example.
The most important contribution of Indian thought in the global
aesthetic philosophy is the concept of rasa. The suggestibility of poetic form
is ultimately the bond that connects the word with vision or experience - and
it is precisely this experience which explains the hardly explicable term rasa.
The first thing to bear in mind, therefore, is that the rasa does not name
something that can be positively identified as a natural object or form, but a
type of lived experience: it is not something you "know" but
something that we feel. A famous saying says that a poem without rasa is like a
marriage without love; and as no one can make us intentionally fall in love, in
the same way cannot make us experience rasa. The second thing that is essential
for this idea is that the concept of rasa is inseparably encompassed by the
vision of the author, the specific power of artistic work and aesthetic
experiential response of the cultured reader. Already in the Vedic era is
emphasized the unity of the poet and the listener, and in subsequent
discussions, the aesthetic theory of recruitment or the reader, as you would
say today, occupies considerably a big part of it. The aesthetically sensitive
reader, the sahrdaya, often called rasika: is one who can be identified,
ideally with the poet that enliven through the whole poetic vision and poetic
emotion. We can therefore say preliminarily that the rasa is identified with
what we call aesthetic shiver, a mysterious and difficult expressible quality
captured only by its effects; the closest equivalent in Western thought is
perhaps the Kantian concept of the sublime (reinterpretation and
transformation, the idea of the height suggested by Longinus in the 1st century
AD ). Because of its unexpressed and fleeting character rasa is paralleled by
many Indian critics -although not completely identically- with religious or
generally ecstatic experiences. The Ampinavagkoupta says that if you touch it
with minimal roughness, it fades and disappears like a flower, and
Anantavarntana says that the best thing we can do for it is to be silent.
The first important Literature of the Classical period, in which
amongst other things we owe the first extensive negotiation of rasa, has been
the Bharata's. Bharata nevertheless refers to the origin of this idea in
Valmiki, the semi-mythical author of Ramayana who thanks to an early modern
means of denotation trick appears in the very plot of the epic. There appears
to say that true poetry "is not the product of intelligent manufacturing
but the spontaneous outpouring of a heart flooded with rasa». Bharata explains this concept developping a complex
theory of aesthetically mediated emotions. The question is to understand what
constitutes an aesthetically mediated emotion in the Indian world. It is clear
than any emotion is not a rasa unless they are stimulated aesthetically: only
one emotion caused and solved by artistic means is free from pathological
potential that accompanies common, derived from the unconscious layers of
emotions and amounts, regardless of what kind passions are at the starting
point, to pure and redemptive joy. The creator to push at the height of this experience must be
selfless and detached from any personal aiming, fear or desire, able to
meditate on the peaceful life situations without being affected by them. What
thus captures and transmits through his work is according to a nice wording of
Bharata, "the thrill of emotion." This secondary processing of
emotion is the quintessence of aesthetic experience. But is such an experience
"true"? Certainly not in the way that is the ordinary experiences of
life. The Ampinavagkoupta, the greatest commentator of Bari, likens it to the
artistic experience of the dream. In a sense, nothing is truly happening in the
outside world: it would be ridiculous to fall in love with a character of drama
or to be scared by a demonic presence on stage; in another aspect, the emotion
is present and cataclysmic, although transient, and once experienced is truer
than anything happens out in everyday life. Like the dream, can also have a
lasting and transformative impact on the psyche of the listener / viewer. This
cathartic element (in the sense that we are familiar from Aristotle) is
actually one of the reconnaissance effects of rasa - the therapeutic character.
The other element that is undoubtedly familiar to every western
philosophical aesthetics, from Aquinas to Kant, is selfless detachment that
characterizes the aesthetic pleasure. We saw how critical is this component to
the experience of rasa · and this somehow makes us think of the relationship
between aesthetic and moral attitude. For the Indians, as for younger
Europeans, aesthetic experience cannot be first unrelated to morality since it
requires selflessness and detachment and selflessness is the root of all worthy
of the name of morality. The moral attitude but suggests much more than simple
detachment; it is essentially active, oriented purposes and requires forms of
action in the public world, which by definition are excluded from the aesthetic
attitude. The sole purpose of the latter is free from all feasibility
meditation - which repeatedly makes the parallels in the Indian world with the
experience of yogi (which has in itself nothing particularly moral). In
general, the interests of the Indian world is more than moral epistemology, and
in this respect the experience of rasa described much more often akin to the
vision of truth. Yet here requires a substantial mitigation: the truth is not
the truth conceptually articulated philosophy but the instantaneous intuitive
flare featuring the more religious-type experiences enlightenment. Identifier
to these experiences is the feeling of bliss that accompanies them, a joy which
no fear and no desire can not be eclipsed. Says an old Vedic saying, only the
man who has defeated selfishness and confronts the highest truth is in ecstatic
jubilation because they're focused will always see the glory of Brahman.
Essence of this bliss is to overcome individualism and identification with the
infinite cosmic reality; and until someone stand able to permanently achieve,
poetry --the Art-- is the only medium offering an occasional glimpse of this
ideals of later life.
In the Indian world, the individual arts represent special codes
morphic irreducible directly with each other, but which at the second level
communicate and are potentially translatable via a fundamental anthropological
correlation. And the depth of this correlation is always found the regulatory
concept of rasa. As regards an art with such different media and construction
techniques from poetry, like painting, its recurrence is that notifies us about
the corresponding artistic effect. It is characteristic that in Santagka work,
or the six rules of painting, which transcribed the painter Ampanintranath
Tagore, brother of poet Rabindranath, in the early twentieth century from an
old Sanskrit manuscript, 8 in six traditional construction principles
-roupampenta (principle of morphological differentiation ) pramanani (measures,
proportions, perspective view), Bava (of mind), take-giotzanam (artistic
freedom or individuality) santrisiam (rhetorical methods of analogies with
poetry), Varna-Baga (technique of coloring) - add two Latest dominant
principles: rhythm (tschanta) and rasa (which the Giulio Cayman translates as
"good taste"). The rasa certainly is, as we have seen, much more ...
In any case it has become clear that, at the level of technical discussions,
represents a critical transition point from a peculiar morphological field to any particular art in single experiential
field that enables artistic creativity and artistic delight in general, and at
whose imaginary sources are potentially translatable and / or the effects of
all the individual arts.
Only thus the idea of a deeper unity of the arts together was
born in the Indian culture . Although each individual art is an expressive unit
field, the common structure of unexpressed whole is reflected inside it , which
itself constitutes an isomorphic image.
Ancient common roots of Indian and Greek music
There are signs that the Greek and Indian music share common
musical Indo-European roots. Today's adventurous musicians, based on current
scientific information, inspired by the system of Vedic hymns in order to reach
the ancient musical modes, whose tradition was lost from Greece.
In India, the development of music associated with the
historical evolution. During Ringside-Vedic era, 3.000-2.5000 BC, the ancient
Indians used to accompany their sacred ceremonies with hymns. Musicians rules
regulating these hymns, recorded in Vedic scriptures and preserved until today,
giving detailed reports of musical art of those times. The geographer Strabo (67p.Ch.-23 AD) argues that the ancient
Greeks were the musicians how mainly in Indian music.
It is said that Pythagoras brought in Greece from the East the
seven notes scales, the three octaves, like in the ancient musical system of
ways. Modern scholars argue that Egyptians and Pythagoreans transferred to
Byzantines and Arabs the most basic concepts of Indian music, while at the end
of the Middle Ages musical concepts were known in the rest of Europe.
It is assumed, therefore, that the ancient Greek music had
common roots with the Indian, or at least with the then international system of
"modes", but whose delivery has maintained unchanged only Indians.
Perhaps these similarities are explained by the relatively new theories,
talking about immigration Dravidians or
Prodravidians tribes in ancient times by Greek territories to India.
END OF PART TWO.
PART
THREE
INFLUENCES
OF MODERN INDIA AND INDIAN ART ON MODERN
GREECE’S CULTURE
There are many similarities in language, grammar, mythology and
philosophy of these two civilizations, such numbers' two δύο '(dva-) and' seven
επτά '(sapta-), the adjectives' broad ευρύς' (uru-) and 'sweet ηδύς '(svādu-) etc. As regards the inclination of
the names in the two languages have dual number,
unlike other Indo-European languages not
available. In philosophy, the Socratic Anaximander taught the Infinite as the
first and ultimate strength (or Authority) and Xenophanes the one God who
creates with his will alone, while in India the Upanishads are the supreme
authority of the universe unlimited and unique spirit of Brahman the will which
emanates or set up. And numerous other...
The world was one and it was a good sign for the future of man
that, so early in history, Greek and Indian spirituality met and left such a
favorable influence each other. The world today, as yesterday, requires the
synthesis of both. The goods and the Wise not distinguish man from man, people
by people. Citizens of the world are an example of WORLD BROTHERHOOD.
The search of the Elders of Eleatic School (Xenophanes,
Parmenides, Zeno) to a reality that lies behind the material phenomena is much
like the search for the visionaries of Upanishads for "that which when it
becomes known, are all known." One can thus choose at random if the same
sayings uttered by sages in all countries and at different times, to show that
all of them belong to the same spiritual family.
The performer of the Upanishads teach: "Realizing the Self»
(atmaman viddhi) and Socrates said, "Know thyself."
Isokrates observes that "the Greek title belongs rather to
those who share our culture than to those who have blood like us.". And
Swami Vivekananda adds: "The Greeks may be foreigners, but those among them
who have rooted their Wisdom is worthy of respect. When it comes to the Wisdom
and the Divine, there is no distinction between compatriots and foreigners.
"
Being the most eastern country of the Western Europe and due to
its history, Greece was and continues to be a buffer as well as a bridge
between the occidental and oriental cultures.
The Indo-Hellenic Society for Culture and Development
(EL.IN.E.P.A.) is a civil, non-governmental and non- profit-making
society that was founded in July 2003 with registration number 8591 at
the Athens Court. The Society is administered by a Board of Directors
consisting of nine members and has advisors and counselors.
The aim of the Society is the growth of the Indo-Hellenic
educational, social, cultural and developmental co-operation resulting in the
aesthetic, moral and intellectual uplift of the individual, development of the
universal thought, transcultural dialogue and peaceful coexistence of the
people. In order to fulfill the above objectives, the EL.IN.E.P.A. proceeds
with the following activities:
Publications:
– Publishes books, dictionaries and translations on Indo-Greek
and Indological subjects.
– Maintains the website and publishes photographical archives,
research papers and an Intercultural forum.
– Records musical CD’s and produces scientific documentaries.
Education and Research:
– Carries out scientific research in social and humanitarian
sciences in Greece and the Indian Subcontinent.
– Organizes lectures, projections, seminars and courses in
relative subjects.
– Encourages introduction in teaching of the Indological and
South Asian Studies in the Greek Universities.
Cultural Events:
– Organizes programs of classical, traditional and modern music
performances.
– Organizes art exhibitions.
– Organizes cultural tours in Greece and India.
Aid and Development:
– Encourages the growth of the commercial and industrial
collaboration as well as the establishment of the Indo-Hellenic Chamber of
Commerce.
– Provides legal and research assistance to businessmen and
immigrants through a network developed in Greece and India.
– Provides scholarships for basic education or professional
specialization to financially challenged students of the Indian Peninsula.
– Provides social aid for victims of calamities, refugees,
immigrants, and others in need.
Hindi songs were presented as Greek (1950 - 1965)
Although the Indian literature has not translated enough to
Greece, India is known to us for its rich poetic tradition (classic epic
Mahabharata, 18 odes 100,000 couplets for each song - five times larger in area
than the Divine Comedy - estimated as a very important asset of world poetry
scene).
I feel that the perception of Western man, completely alien to
the Asian temperament and psychic origins, is a powerful obstacle to an
approach and deeper connection with this kind of poetry. Characteristic of
these works is simplicity (inherent in the overall spirit of the Asian culture)
and the unpretentious form, images of a lively nature and the constant
conversation with the natural elements personified and converse giving the
appropriate transcendental material. In younger poets, though, I see there is a
marked departure from the classic structures and thematic and one can recognize
them the rejuvenating trend of freer glance.
The Asian field is almost completely unknown, hiding countless
treasures and lessons especially for us who inhabit modern stone jungle of
globalization and migration and we must find common points of reference. Apart
from the need for communication and mutual understanding, which are anyway
essential, there is need for learning. The emerging East with the worsening
contradictions, has much to contribute to the social cauldron, ready to
explode.
A cultural "invasion" of India to Greece happened in
the 15 years from 1950 to 1965, full of colors, dances, music and songs. The
"Trojan Horse" was the Indian cinema, which won the Greek audience
with melodramatic works, full of emotion, and filled the halls. Films like the
musical "Barsaat" or "Awaara" (The bum of Mumbai) and
"Mother India" (Earth soaked with sweat) and artists like Lata
Mangeshkar, the Raj Kapoor and Nargis charmed Greeks.
Hundred films were presented in Greece, not always the best,
with social, erotic, historical or mythological themes. The songs in Indian
films were not interpreted by the same actors as believed, but by famous
playback singers. Top among women were the singers Lata and Shamshad famous among
men was Mukesh. The composers who dominated the soundtrack of Indian films was
Naushad and Shankar - Jaikishan.
What the Greek
spectators liked in most Indian films were their songs. This excited the
business acumen of some popular Greek composers who remix or copied Indian
songs with Greek lyrics and presented them as their own creations (officially
recorded 108 songs). In this way the invasion of India and Greek music was
inevitable. Surprisingly those songs throughout the Greek discography in the decades
1950-1960 although represent a small percentage of the total amount of the
songs of this period became nonetheless over time, we might say, classic. They
became some of the most representative "Greek" folk songs of that
period. Famous examples: "This night remeinss", "my poor
Heart," "A much you deserve ", etc., from singers like M.
Angelopoulos, St. Kazantzidis, O. Panos, B. Palla, etc.
A book has recently released
about "Indoprepon revelation (From India exoticism in folk muse
Greek) / Helen Ambatzi - Manuel Tasoulas / Ed. Path and the CD:" The
Indoprepi "-" The Homecoming of Mantoumpala "- "The Song of
Nargis."
Here are 3 such indicative songs with elements for each
authentic Indian song (title translation, film) and the corresponding Greek
(title, "composer", year, performer).
As for modern Indian poetry many books of Indian poets were
translated in Greek and published in Greece by many publishing houses. You can
see some of these in the catalogue below for this year’s period
END OF PART THREE.
PART FOUR
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
The enlightened teacher RABINDRANATH Tagore, was one of the most
brilliant figures of the modern era - a multifaceted genius, at once poet, painter,
philosopher, Nobel Laureate and above all a humanist. In Poetry and masterful
prose RABINDRANATH Tagore transfers to the outside world the inherent
properties of our close relationship with nature, the search for truth, and a
sense of solidarity and community that transcends and debunks the conceivable
barriers of religion, race and language. It was many years ago when I met
Tagore. Scurrying to the municipal library of my city, looking for treasures
buried in the dust.
I fell on the strange name: Rabindranath. It was a small book,
entitled "Lampyrides" (fireflies in Greek). I read a few lines and
left with three books on my arms. The first contact with this Indian genius was shocking, although
I had read oriental philosophy and Hermann Hesse. When the Western world first met him in 1912, he knew very
little about this other way of thinking. So Tagore won Europe and the US within
a year. Tagore's family belonged to the highest caste. He was starred in
"Bengal Renaissance" as he dubbed the flowering of arts and letters
in that province of British Empire. Most of the thirteen brothers of Rabindranath were
intellectuals, artists, musicians and writers. (Only one became a football
player). He was a homo universalis, a polymath who dealt with every
science, every art and philosophy.
In 1912, when he was fifty years old, he had gained recognition
in India, but the rest of the world was waiting for him. That year decided to accompany his son to England to study. The
trip lasted two months aboard and Rabindranath wrote lyrics in English during
that trip.
It was like poetry quotations small lampyrides, fireflies, which
seemed to contain in a few words all the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita (some of
them you can read at the end of the text).
When they arrived in England the suitcase of Tagore, along with
notebooks and poems, was lost or stolen. He was indifferent to the loss. But a few days later, the suitcase appeared unexpectedly. I
would like to believe that the thief read his poems and repented, but it would
sound very fictional. Tagore gave his notebooks to some English friends. They went to
the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (known as WB Yeats)
"These poems shook my blood as nothing else for
years," said Yeats. Some of those poems were published immediately. What followed
resembles the mania for the Beatles. Tagore became a pop idol, even before they
introduced the term "pop". The Ezra Pound compared Tagore with Dante. Andre Gide, Juan Ramon Jimenez and Boris Pasternak translated
his poems into French, Spanish and Russian. In Germany he praised Thomas Mann. A year after his meeting with the Western world, in 1913, Tagore
received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the first, not only Asian but
the first non-European who received this distinction. His fans in Europe and the US, were waiting at the train
stations, to see him, to kiss his hand. Some fainted from emotion. One of Tagore’s black
moments were his meeting with Mussolini in Rome in 1926. Tagore said that Benito was undoubtedly a great personality and
that he seemed to have come out of a painting of Michelangelo. Moreover he said
that fascism was a glittering Renaissance in Italy. It was not the only one who committed this error. The Futurists
like Marinetti strongly supported fascism.
The same happened with Ezra Pound, the great American poet, who
resulted in a cage when his compatriots invaded Italy. And let's not forget Heidegger, who supported Nazism. Sometimes the darkness is so dazzling that resembles light. In 1915 he was honored by King George of England with a
knighthood, which declined in 1919 to protest the slaughter of innocent people
in the city Amritsar from the English army. He was interested in education and pedagogy and in 1901 founded
the Valmpour, 150 km away from Calcutta, a free teaching faculty, which in 1922
changed into an international university.
From 1924 onwards he traveled a lot and visited several
countries, among them Greece. His works were translated into many European
languages. Characteristic features in his poetry is the secrecy and
sensitivity. Tagore was not only a poet. As we have said was involved in
every science. And is philosophical relics meet
with the man who established the physics in the twentieth century,
another pop idol, Albert Einstein. The journalist who recorded the first debate between them
writes: "It was very interesting to see them together. Tagore, the poet
in the head of the intellectual. And
Einstein, the thinker in the head of the poet. To an observer they seemed like two planets who
were engaged in a friendly chat."
The New York Times had published a photograph, subtitled:
"A mathematician and a mystic meet in Manhattan." The ultimate scientist, Einstein, believed in some god who does
not play dice, although declared atheist. The god was the Truth, which exists
outside of man and without him. Tagore, the adept believed that the truth, the reality, can only
be understood in terms of our mental interpretations, based on what we think
and we grasp. Something similar was also claimed by Bohr, the founder of
quantum mechanics: "The objective existence of the world has no meaning
independent of " the human mind ". Deep wells of mind. Quantum mechanical showed that the observer affects the observed
(see the living dead cat of Schrödinger). But whoever claims to have understood
quantum mechanics, has not understood. It works, but in some incomprehensible
way. Tagore, the adept, seems to be approaching more modern science
than Einstein, the mathematical. "God not only plays dice, but he throws them and places
them where we do not see," said Hawkins. There is a picture, from the office of Einstein, the day he
died. If not deterred from the chaos up there, you'll notice a philosophy
volume on the right. Albert sought the truth everywhere, it was his god. Tagore had understood that we cannot separate the intuitive than
logical, mathematics than poetry. The spirit progresses as it seeks untold.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge, because
knowledge has no limits."
Wise is the one who is trying to learn, and is conscious of his
ignorance. Anyone who claims to own the truth is either a charlatan or
idiot or politician.
Fireflies.
The one without the other is emptiness, the other makes it true.
The burden of self is lightened when I laugh at myself.
The weak can be terrible, because they try furiously to appear
strong.
The world is the ever-changing foam that floats on the surface
of a sea of silence.
The sea of danger, doubt and
denial around man's little island of certainty, challenges him to dare the
unknown.
I leave no traces of wings in the air, but I’m glad I have had
my flight.
The world knows that the few are more that the many.
Love is an endless mystery for it has nothing else to explain
it.
Beauty knows to say, «Enough». Barbarism clamors for still more.
I am able to love my God, because he gives freedom to deny him.
The greed for fruit misses the flower.
Truth loves its limits for there it meets the beautiful.
Between the shores of Me and You, there is the loud ocean, my
own surging self, which I long to cross.
True end is not the reaching of the limit, but in completion
which is limitless.
My last salutations are to them who knew me imperfect and love
me.
When death comes and whispers to me,
«Your days are ended», let me say to him,
«I have lived in love and in mere time».
He will ask, «Will your songs remain?»
I shall say, «I know not, but this I know, that often when I
sang
I found my eternity »
Through his writings, he expressed again the wisdom
of ancient India meeting the pace of the modern times. RABINDRANATH Tagore visited Greece in 1926, when traveling in
Europe. 'The logic and metaphysics, without which there can reflect
no man of the West, were incorporated into the spiritual baggage of
humanity" said Tagore about the achievements of the ancient Greeks. The great poet has in generally the thought in Greek poetry as
it influenced the same way the whole world. Many books of the poet were translated in Greek, there were many
articles and researches from Universities ,
ELINEPA and others on Tagore’s
excellent personality which reflects many of the Indo –Greek influences generated
among the centuries as previously have been analyzed.
Here’s a small video of a simple Greek person who translated
poems of Tadore and mad of them a video.
The Indian Council of World Affairs organized an International
Conference on “Rabindranath Tagore – Envoy of India: His Vision of India and
the World”. The Conference was held on
9-10 May, 2013 at Sapru House, New Delhi. The outline of this conference was a
commemorative volume on Tagore’s travels and his vision of India and the World. The Conference provided a forum to scholars from the 34
countries that Tagore visited for
discussion on his global legacy as an envoy of India, highlighting his vision
of independent India in a peaceful and unified world free from strife and
conflict. Two scholars and members of ELINEPA attended the Conference from
Greece, Dr. Dimirios Vassiliadis, who spoke on “Tagore’s historical journey to
Greece” and Dr. Andreas Katonis who spoke on “Tagore and the Delphic Idea”. The Conference offered the opportunity to improve our
understanding of Tagore’s contemporary relevance. This included an exploration
of his travels to countries ranging from Japan to Argentina and the extent to
which he succeeded in creating an enduring legacy. It also demonstrated the
extent to which Tagore’s journeys influenced his own views of the universal Man
and the world as a whole. How was he influenced by the culture and traditions
of the countries he visited? How did his thoughts impact the overseas audience?
How did these voyages contributed to his philosophy of internationalism,
humanism and spiritual unity and religion of man? Since then many tribute to Tagore had organized at lieast by
ELINEPA. Celebrating the 150 years from the birth of Rabindranath Tagore,
the EL.IN.E.P.A. organized in co-operation with the Indian Embassy in Athens
two events dedicated to the National Poet of India and Bangladesh.
The first event took place on the 5th February at the Cultural
Center “Floisvos” of Municipality of Palaio Faliro. In the beginning of the
event the Ambassador of India Mr. Tsewang Topden released the commemorate volume on Tagore’s 150th Birth
Anniversary that was published by EL.IN.E.P.A. After Ambassador’s introductory
speech on life and work of Tagore, the President of EL.IN.E.P.A. spoke about
Tagore’s philosophy and Prof. Andreas Katonis on the common vision shared by
the poets, Tagore and Sikelianos. Ms Panagiota Koronia, a student of Hindi,
presented Tagore’s poems. After the speeches, the documentary “The Story of
Gitanjali” was screened and the program ended with Kostas Kalaitzis who
presented songs of Tagore. In the event participated numerous artists from the
Artistic Association Technosphera who had exhibited their works in the hall of
Floisvos and made a suitable atmosphere for the whole celebration.
The second celebration took place a few days later on the 22nd
March at the Hall of the Youth Center of the Municipality of Chalandri, Athens
where a photo exhibition was presented by the Embassy of Bangladesh. In the
celebration spoke the Ambassador of India, the Ambassador of Bangladesh and the
Mayor of Chalandri Mr. Giorgos Kourasis. The event continued until late with
Kostas Kalaitzis’ songs and Nektarios Mitritsakis’ ragas in Sitar.
The documentary “The Story of Gitanjali” on the Life and work of
Tagore (30′ English with Greek subtitles prepared by the students of
EL.IN.E.P.A.) was screened sometime later by the Kontra TV channel.
The last one such event about Tagore happened this year Sunday,
April 26and it was about Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore – Founders of the
Modern Indian Thought .
Anyway Internet is full of posts about Tagore in Greek. I think
his poetry is very near the spirit which still pervades modern Greek
intelligentsia, the ancient Greek Spirit. We enough analyzed above how the
cultural origins of the poet connect with this Spirit through the centuries.
Furthermore a quote of the great poet is “ I believe in the true come together
of West with the East.”
To conclude let’s pay attention to the old and beloved book by
Rabindranath Tagore, "The Religion of the poet."
Culture, according to the Greek dictionary of Babiniotis is the
combination of physical and spiritual achievements (or products of action) of a
society. But Tagore does a lot less technocratic approach to the concept of
culture and of course, much more poetic.
Culture, says Tagore, is the crowning of good manners!
In his time, a hundred years ago, someone could talk about good
manners! In our time, no. We shake off the oppressive education, of how it is
appropriate to treat others in order to feel that we honor and respect them.
And it almost doesn't concern us, if
they treat us accordingly. Or when we are concerned, we respond in a way not at
all civilized.
It is very difficult, being able to have the measure of our
acts.
"In seeking freedom, we reach the promiscuity, seeking
democracy we end up in the misuse of ideas and the operation of "
opponents ".
But, according also to Tagore, to reach culture in a
comprehensive level requires "patience, composure and a comfort
atmosphere."
But we will get patience only when we cease to have desires,
because "our desires are always rushing to meet, rushing pushing one
another, they are violent and brazen. They do not know rest and have no
patience to achieve their purpose." All this is well known in our modern
lives.
For the poise, the ability ie of self control in order to
maintain a metron in our aims, as it is clear, we do not possess it and will
not obtain, as long as our culture rests complacent in history and every modern
achievements dedicated 'in Greece' are personal, individual creations of some
persons who have set targets, mastered their self and imposed to him the
minimum "comfort" to express their creative talent.
The comfort is a concept that wants particular attention to
understanding. Because usually the economic, political or social comfort,
enhance the desires and our culture is confined to superficial social rituals
of politeness.
The greatest creations were made in times and conditions tight
and hard.
When appropriate external conditions do not exist, are replaced
by the internal discipline of the creators. Then the spirit seeks the inner
atmosphere of freedom, it installs it and creates.
The atmosphere of comfort
for Tagore though refers in a transcendent behavior which it should
adopt gladly someone to confirm "good manners" . Because "the
real courtesy (as friendly and caring disposal) is a creation, such as painting
and music.
It is a harmonious combination of voice, gestures, movements,
words and acts, with whom expressed a polite behavior. "
So culture according Tagore is this constant mood of kindness,
which "reveals exactly the man and has no other another object than
him."
All other achievements and activities of "civilized"
people is culture, to the extent based on harmonization of mental courtesy of
persons forming a specific society with feelings of mutual respect, solidarity,
mutual acceptance and responsibility.
This love is what makes a man civilized and it is the foundation
of a civilized society.
It is certainly a very deep and meaningful view on culture, a
penetrating gaze of the Indian Nobel Laureate Poet P. Tagore, who still had the
sensitivity to say, that "For someone to write a really unsettling book,
it is very likely to be considered as energy risky. On the other hand however,
be silenced may be a sin. "
As you perhaps know I am a poetess, a Greek poetess and Tagore
often inspired me, as I meet him often through poetical exchanges between me
and my Indian and Bangladeshian fb
friends. One of my poems, in which his words inspired me, is the poem below. A
Tagore’s quote is its title.
MIND ALL LOGIC IS KNIFE
ALL BLADE, HAND'S BLEEDING~(RABINDRANATH TAGORE QUOTE)
Sometimes I fear that
I avoided reasonably nothing and never
which I tried to avoid.
Nothing of what I
extirpate in fury doesn't just stay aside to
wither quietly.
How many times I
rejected you! How many times I said “This is the end.
I won't go crazy !”
Feelings have different
specific weight between people, so different
between me and you.
I sink because of
them, you float just by not confronting them.
We are not alike !
How would I solve this ?
Love doesn't get cured by a different love, it always fakes
playing hide 'n seek ...
I sit idly by ,
waiting... Life comes swinging herself pretty fancy
and I ignore her!
Logic, sharp dagger!
How you stab me ruthlessly , you annihilate me! Ach!
Wish I was mindless!
Damn me! I did all
in my life consciously, I never had the trump
of mental lightness ...
END OF PART FOUR.
©CHRYSSAVELISSARIOU2013
SOURCES:
http://minoraki2.blogspot.gr/2011/11/1950-1965.html
https://semeio.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/greek-india
https://semeio.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/greek-india
[CHRYSSA VELISSARIOU]
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