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16 Works of Pandit Guru Datta Vidyarthi
himself to be carried away too far by his enthusiasm for the less
known. He is blind for the
dark sides of the Upanishads;
and he wilfully
shuts his eyes against the bright rays of eternal truths in the Gospel,
which even Rammohun Roy was quick enough to perceive behind
the mist and clouds of tradition that gather so quickly round the
sunrise of every religion."
With the view that the Christianity of Max Muller may be
set forth more clearly before the reader, we will quote from his "History
of Ancient Sanskrit Literature (p.29)". Says Max Muller —
"But if India has no place in the political history of the world,
it certainly has a right to claim its place in the intellectual history
of mankind. The less the Indian nation has taken part in the political
struggles of the world, and expended its energies in the exploits of
war and the formation of empire, the more it has fitted itself and
concentrated all its powers for the fulfilment of the important
mission reserved to it in the history of the East. History seems to
teach that the whole human race required a gradual education
before, in the fulness of time, it could be admitted to the truths of
Christianity. All the fallacies of human reason had to be exhausted,
before the light of a higher truth could meet with ready acceptance.
The ancient religions of the world were but the milk of nature, which
was in due time to be succeeded by the bread of life. After the
primeval physiolatry, which was common to all members of the
Aryan family, had, in the hands of
a
wily priesthood, been changed
into an empty idolatry, the Indians alone, of all the Aryan nations,
produced a new form of 'religion, which has well been called
subjective, as opposed to the more objective worship of Nature.
That religion, the religion of Buddha, has spread far beyond the
limits of the Aryan world, and to our limited vision, it may seem
to have retarded the advent of Christianity among a large portion
of the human race. But in the sight of Him with whom a thousand
years are but as one day, that religion, like all the ancient religions
of the world, may have but served to prepare the way of Christ, by
helping, through its very errors, to strengthen and to deepen the
ineradicable yearning of the human heart after the truths of God."
Is not this Christian prejudice? Nor is this with Max Muller
alone. Even more strongly does this remark hold good of Monier
* Max Muller, The Sacred Books of the East, Von, pp.LXiv-LXv