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Re: Re : Erwin Schroedinger and Hinduism
In article <4dnfue$q6c@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
Sankar Jayanarayanan <kartik@eng.auburn.edu> wrote:
>>>late 1920s or early 1930s ). Schroedinger ALWAYS considered himself a Hindu.
> > I don't think so but I'll have to check. His recent biography has been
> > on my list of books to read for a while now.
> >
> > Nevertheless, Schroedinger (and a host of other German/Austrian
> > intellectuals of the time) was influenced by Vedanta (he learnt about
> > it mostly from the writings of Schoepenhauer) and even devoted a couple
> > of chapters in his book "Meine Weltansicht" to its exposition. He
> > also went on to extend the Upanishadic ideas and formulate his own
> > independent version of the "truth".
> >
>
> Do you consider Adi Sankara to be a Hindu? If so, why?
Yes, since he was born and grew up in the land that was considered to
be that of the Hindus, since he identified with the prevailing Hindu
cultural and religious ethos.
> This, of course, brings the question of who a Hindu is. I,personally,
> go by the definition that a person is a hindu if he believes in the
> Vedas/Upanishads. In many of the writings by Schroedinger, you find that
> his belief in the Vedanta was extraordinary. Moreover, you left out
> something from my previous posting-
There have been many Westerners (Emerson et al) who were enormously moved
by Vedantic ideas and who didn't consider themselves Hindu.
> > Also, my professor in India has stated that when Schroedinger was staying
> > for a few days in India, he scrupulously followed the Indian customs,
> > including applying Tilak to his fore-head, wearing a Dhoti,etc....
>
> So let's consider Schroedinger's case-
> 1) He had belief in the Vedanta, or rather, the Advaita philosophy.
> 2) He seems to have had some liking towards the Hindu customs, too.
>
> >From the above two points, I must confess that it was me and not
> Schroedinger who "considered" Schroedinger a Hindu.
I'm glad you see the difference. For people not born into the native
tradition but who borrow from or are heavily influenced by that tradition,
it isn't always clear what label they should go by (if they want one in
the first place) unless they themselves explicitly claim one.
The Hare Krishnas handsomely satisfy both 1) and 2) above (substitute
Dvaita for Advaita), yet many of them will tell you that they aren't
Hindu.
Let me also give you a reverse scenario:
1) Many Indians I know have a strong belief in Western science or
Western ideas.
2) They also have some liking towards many Western customs etc.
Yet, most of them will think you've gone cuckoo if you suggested that
they consider themselves "Westerners."
> BUT though you may not really come across something in Schroedinger's
> biography that he did consider himself a Hindu, I don't know of ANY
> biography of Adi Sankara (the Sankara Dig-vijayam for instance) where
> he is proclaimed to be a "Hindu".
See above.
> > As an aside, other than the demonstration of the universality of Vedantic
> > ideas, I don't attach much importance to merely the fact that some Westerner
> > (however accomplished or well-known) gave them his or her stamp of
> > approval.
> >
> I don't believe that the Vedanta philosophy is universal. Buddha, for example,
> rejected the Vedas completely.
Of course I didn't mean 'universal` as in "The laws of physics are
universal" or as in "universal acceptance." If the phraseology bothers
you just read it as: "...demonstration of the appeal of Vedantic ideas..."
r
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