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Presidential Address
lity of trâ in Vedic life, that is, act instead of fact. Bergson, who stands foremost among contemporary European philosophers, has remarkable affinity with the philosophy of sākta Vedānta wherein a dynamic Chit-Sakti instead of the static Brahma of the ordinary Vedānta is posited as Reality. Some of the metaphors employed by him to illustrate his view of Time remind one of similar metaphors used with reference to the activity of avidyā in Samkara's philosophy. Beagson's analysis of Time, and the doctrine of Space-Time which of late has come very much to the front carry our thoughts to the idea of Time as treated in Nyāya, Sāmkhya, Vedānta and more especially, Jain philosophy. Iwo other philosophers of outstanding fame on the continent are Croce and Gentile, both idealists: Of these the latter is so distinctly Vedāntic that numerous pages can be quoted from his writings which disclose close parallels with those of Sankara and his followers. “The Subjectivity of the Real”, “Unity of Mind and multiplicity of things", "Subject which is never Object ", " What becomes never is” are headings of some of the chapters and sections of chapters of Gentile's " Theory of Mind as Pure Act", which may well become titles of adhikaranas in a work of Vedānta. The greatest problem of the day in British philosophy, however, is Realism versus Idealism from which are now emerging new types of Idealism and Realism which may be characterised as Idealistic Realism and Realistic Idealism. To this Indian philosophy is in a position to make valuable contributions. When that contact between the East and the West
