Between You and Us

Dear Reader,

Sai Ram. In this issue we feature an unusual article, a wonderful contribution from our Sai brothers in Greece. For many years, there has been a heart warming bond of Love between Swami and His devotees in Greece, and many a time Swami has talked about it to His students. On one occasion when Greek devotees staged a play in the Poornachandra Auditorium, Swami went out of the way to arrange for the costumes and even taught some of them how to put on the [Indian] dresses!

Some time ago when a few devotees from Greece dropped in to visit us at the Prashanti Digital Studio they asked us how they could contribute to Heart to Heart. We suggested that perhaps they might consider producing an article that relates the teachings of their famous philosophers to that of Swami; the article that appears in this issue is the result.

It is no exaggeration to state that Greek thought and philosophy form, in a sense, the corner stone of modern Western thought and Civilization. True the original ideas got modified in due course, with Western thinking becoming increasingly outward looking; and there are good historical reasons for that. However, one need not necessarily imagine that this in an altogether undesirable development. On the contrary, it is the seed planted by ancient Greeks that eventually led to the blossoming of modern scientific thought in the West. That is why Swami Vivekananda once said that what the world needs today is a balanced mix of Greek philosophy and Eastern Wisdom. In Swami’s language, this would amount to a balanced mix of education for living and education for LIFE or EDUCARE, as it is more popularly known these days.

Perhaps there are two things we might briefly make a special mention of in relation to Plato and ancient Indian philosophy. The first is that Plato observed that there is the world we all live in, an imperfect world, and a Perfect World above. Further, everything we find or discover here is but a mere projection of something in the Higher World. There are clear echoes of similar thinking, in the Bhagavad Gita, for example. The second is that Plato talked of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. This is remarkably parallel to the words Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram, that Indian philosophers often used to describe God.

The long and short of it is that if we enough spend time looking for parallels and similarities between various systems of thought, we would have far less conflict in the world. Instead, the media today seems to be hell bent on discovering differences [even if there aren’t any], and magnifying them to the point of even distortion. We trust the wonderful example set by our Greek brothers would inspire our readers to come up with similar articles drawing parallels between say, ancient Chinese philosophy and Swami’s teachings, between Talmudic thinking and Swami’s teachings, and so on.

Incidentally, all that all philosophers have ever said and would ever say necessarily has to be a subset what Swami has said. Reason? Simple; He is the Ultimate Knowledge and all Revelations anyone has had or will ever have has to be rooted in what Swami has said!

Agree? Think about it! And while you are about it, how about emulating the Greek brothers?

Jai Sai Ram. SGH TEAM