Humanism of Haribhadra

Author(s): Christian Lindtner
Publisher: Z_Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_1_002105.pdf and Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_2

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Christian Lindtner
Jambū-jyoti
the public weal, were originally designed by the rare species of men of virtue and talent.*
The common ideal of the ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian philosophers was freedom of mind through spiritual purification and the ceaseless exertion of the faculty of reason. When the Western philosophers spoke of virtus and ratio, their Indian colleagues spoke of dharma and buddhi (dhi, mati, prajñā, etc).
We here can speak of the common ideals of Aryan humanism.
In today's world, this aristocratic ideal is being revolted against on several fronts.
First, there is the ignorance of the masses. There is no reason naïvely to assume that the masses today are less prone to superstition or more inclined to enlightenment than they have been in the past. It is as if the masses simply want to be deceived, and the mass media as a rule serve their interests well in this regard.
No less ferocious is the threat against Aryan humanism posed by the educated minorities that are now haunting our universities on a global scale.
Part of the reason for this sad state of affairs are the events that took place in 1968 and the years that followed. This was the period of the student revolts, the main purpose of which was to abolish the authority of traditional European ideals of science and culture. The minds behind this academic revolution apparently addressed themselves to the majority of students who had little or no academic experience. To deceive them was easy enough. They considered themselves Marxists, their mentality was proletarian, and their purpose was, as said, to eliminate and replace the traditional European ideals, which were, undoubtedly, those of the élite and largely based on authority. The old acadernic élite found itself belonging to a minority, and in our modern "democratic” society where numerical majority proves decisive when it comes to political power, scholars of the old school soon found themselves reduced to silence and deprived of influence. Gradually, the old territories of the arts and humanities were occupied by the so-called
* We fully agree with the author in everything he said.
- Editors.