I do not wish by what I have said to raise any exaggerated expectations as to the worth of these ancient hymns of the Veda, and the character of that religion which they indicate rather than fully describe. The historical importance of the Veda can hardly be exaggerated; but its intrinsic merit, and particularly the beauty or elevation of its sentiments, have by many been rated far too high. Large numbers of the Vedic hymns are childish in the extreme: tedious, low, commonplace. The gods are constantly inyoked to protect their worshippers, to grant them food, large flocks, large families, and a long life; for all which benefits they are to be rewarded by the praises and sacrifices offered day after day, or at certain seasons of the year. But hidden in this rubbish there are precious stones.
German-born British philologist, orientalist and indologist (1823–1900)
Friedrich Max Müller (6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900), more commonly known as Max Müller (or Mueller), was a German philologist and Orientalist, who was a major pioneer of the discipline of comparative religion.
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Native Name:
Max Müller
Alternative Names:
Rt. Hon. Friedrich Max Muller
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F. Max Müller
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Professor Friedrich Max-Muller
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F. M. M.
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Friedrich Maximilian Müller
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Max Muller
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आप सब वीरों में समृद्ध एवं सशक्त वीरवत्तम हैं। यत्र-तत्र सर्वत्र आपका स्तवगान होता रहता है। आप सभी अदितिसुत आदित्यों या देवताओं में अविजेय हैं। हे देव! आप हमें अपना मित्र बनाने की कृपा कीजिए।’ ‘शासक आदित्य ने इन नदियों को धरती पर प्रवाहित किया है। हे वरुण! वे आपकी आज्ञाकारी हैं। वे आपकी आज्ञा में रहती हुई निरन्तर प्रवाहित होती रहती हैं, वे कभी थकती नहीं और न अपने प्रवाह को ही कभी रोकती हैं। मानो उड़ती जा रही हों।
The worship of Shiva, Vishnu, and other popular deities was of the same and in many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter, Apollo or Minerva. ... A religion may linger on for a long time, it may be accepted by large masses of the people, because it is there, and there is nothing better. But when a religion has ceased to produce defenders of the faith, prophets, champions, martyrs, it has ceased to live, in the true sense of the word; and in that sense the old orthodox Brahmanism has ceased to live for more than a thousand years.
All one's ideas of Adam and Eve, and the Paradise, and the tower of Babel, and Shem, Ham, and Japhet, with Homer and Aeneas and Virgil too, seemed to be whirling round and round, till at last one picked up the fragments and tried to build a new world, and to live with a new historical consciousness.
शकुन्तला के निवेदन को सुनने से इनकार किया तो वह किस सर्वोच्च शक्ति से क्या निवेदन करती है? आत्मा की आवाज। वह राजा से कहती है — ‘यदि तुम सोचते हो कि मैं अकेली हूँ, तो तुम अपने हृदय के उस बुद्धिमान व्यक्ति को नहीं जानते। वह तुम्हारे दुष्कर्मों को जानता है — तुम उसके सामने पाप करते हो। पाप करने वाला व्यक्ति समझता है कि उसके बारे में कोई नहीं जानता। इसे ईश्वर जानता है और भीतर का वृद्ध व्यक्ति जानता है।
बच्चे जब 6 साल के होते हैं तब उनचास अक्षर और दस हजार संयुक्त अक्षर सीखते हैं और उन्हें सामान्यत: आधे साल में समाप्त कर देते हैं। यह लगभग तीन सौ श्लोकों के बराबर और प्रत्येक श्लोक बत्तीस अक्षरों का होता है। इसे मूल रूप से महेश्वर के द्वारा पढ़ाया गया था। आठ साल में, बच्चे पाणिनि का व्याकरण याद करना प्रारम्भ कर देते हैं और उसे आठ माह में पढ़ लेते हैं। इसमें 1000 श्लोक होते हैं जिन्हें सूत्र कहा जाता है। इसके
The position which believers and unbelievers occupy with regard to their various forms of faith is very much the same all over the world. The difficulties which trouble us, have troubled the hearts and minds of men as far back as we can trace the beginnings of religious life. The great problems touching the relation of the Finite to the Infinite, of the human mind as the recipient, and of the Divine Spirit as the source of truth, are old problems indeed; and while watching their appearance in different countries, and their treatment under varying circumstances, we shall be able, I believe, to profit ourselves, both by the errors which others committed before us, and by the truth which they discovered. We shall know the rocks that threaten every religion in this changing and shifting world of ours, and having watched many a storm of religious controversy and many a shipwreck in distant seas, we shall face with greater calmness and prudence the troubled waters at home.
Without a subject there is no object in the world, without understanding there is nothing to understand, without mind no matter. You think that matter comes first, and then what we call mind. Where is this matter? Where have you ever seen matter? You see oak, fir, slate, and granite, and all sorts of other materies, as the old architects called them, never matter. Matter is the creation of the mind, not the reverse. Our entire world is thought, not wood and stone. We learn to think or reflect upon the thoughts, which the Thinker of the world, invisible, yet everywhere visible, has first thought. What we see, hear, taste, and feel, is all within us, not without. Sugar is not sweet, we are sweet. The sky is not painted blue, we are blue. Nothing is large or small, heavy or light, except as to ourselves. Man is the measure of all things, as an ancient Greek philosopher asserted; and man has inferred, discovered, and named matter. And how did he do it? He called everything, out of which he made anything, matter; materia first meant nothing more than wood used for building, out of which man built his dwelling. Here you have the whole secret of matter. It is building-material, oak, pine, birch, whichever you prefer.
Muller may have well felt the need to stress that "an ethnologist who speaks of an Aryan race, Aryan eyes and hair, and Aryan blood is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolicocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar"; after all, it was he who had been a principal cause in such misconceptions through his earlier remarks on the common blood that the "English soldier" shared with the "dark Bengali".
The translation of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3000 years.