Influence of Maharishi Dayanand in the change of thoughts of Max Muller

 

Influence of Maharishi Dayanand in the change of thoughts of Max Muller

[Author- Late Pandit Yudhishthir Mimansak

Reproduced by Dr. Vivek Arya]

Some letters of Max Muller addressed to his wife, son etc. have been found. The letter writer writes his heart's feelings in the letters without any hesitation. Hence, the thoughts written in his letters are considered more authentic than the books written by any other person.

Initial thoughts- To show what were Max Muller's thoughts regarding the Vedas in the early period, some of his quotations are given below-

1. In a letter of 1866, Max Muller writes to his wife- 

"The translation of the Vedas and this version of mine will have a far-reaching effect on the fate of India in the future. It is the root of its religion and I firmly feel that showing them what this root is like is the only way to uproot everything that has grown from it in the last three thousand years."

2. In a letter he writes to his son-

 "Among all the religious books of the world, the 'New Covenant' (Jesus' Bible) is the best. After this, the Quran, which is a version of the 'New Covenant' in the teaching of conduct, can be placed. After this are the Old Covenant (Jewish Bible), South Buddhist Tripitaka, ... Vedas and Avesta etc." 

3. On 16 December 1868, in a letter to the Secretary of India, Duke of Argyle, Max Muller writes-

 "The ancient religion of India is on the verge of extinction and if Christianity does not replace it, then whose fault will it be?"

4. Max Muller writes-

 "A large number of Vedic Suktas are extremely childish, complex, inferior and simple."

5. Letter of Max Muller to his close friend E.B. Pusey- 

"Your work will bring a new era in the effort to convert Indians to Christianity."

           Wow, what can one say? As is Max Muller, so is his friend? In fact, the Christian, Jewish bias was working in the minds of all those Christians, Jews, Vedas and Sanskrit language of this period. Monier Williams composed Sanskrit-English dictionary, the spirit of Christianity was working behind this too. He wrote the said dictionary to help his countrymen in converting Indians to Christianity. He writes in the introduction to the dictionary-

"That the special object of his munificent bequest was to promote the translation of the scriptures into Sanskrit, so as to enable his countrymen to proceed in the conversion of the natives of India to the Christian Religion." (Introduction page 9)

Our purpose was to present Max Muller's initial thoughts, which became clear from the above quotes. Now we present his later thoughts-

Later Thoughts- 

We quote the compilation of Max Muller's later thoughts from his lectures, which he presented to the candidates for administrative service in India in the year 1882 in the lecture series titled 'INDIA WHAT CAN IT TEACH US'.

First of all, the title of the said lecture series itself attracts our attention. This title itself announces the change in Max Muller's thoughts. Otherwise, the person who considered Indians to be uncivilized and ignorant should have told the people who came to India to run the administration that how to civilize the uncivilized Indians after going there, instead of telling them 'what should we learn from India?'. Now we quote some thoughts from the Hindi translation of this book-

Vedic religion did not receive any external influence - 

"When no objection could be found in giving historical importance to Vedic literature, even then critics raised a big and final objection without any reason. Such people started saying emphatically that if Vedic poetry is not completely foreign, then it definitely has foreign influence and especially Semitic influence. Sanskrit scholars have described many attractive elements of the Vedas. According to them, the most attractive element of the Vedas is that it not only acquaints us with the very ancient state of religious thoughts, but Vedic religion is the only religion that did not receive any external influence during its entire development period and in comparison to all the religions of the world, it has continued uninterrupted for the maximum number of centuries." 

There is no external influence on Vedic language, literature, religion or yajna -

 "After testing all the arguments that have been given to prove foreign influence on ancient Indian literature, we have now come to a position where we can say that there is no external influence of any kind on Vedic language, literature, religion or yajna. In whatever form it is before us, it has developed in that form and in that country which was completely protected by inaccessible mountain ranges in the north, Sindh and desert in the west, a deep ocean in the south and Ganga in the east. We have before us a poem (Vedic religion) which was born there and developed there only" (page 145)

Polytheism or Monotheism- 

"If you ask us whether Vedic religion is monotheistic or polytheistic, then it will not be difficult for me to answer this. Vedic religion is not monotheistic in the sense in which monotheism is understood. Although there are many hymns in which monotheism has been said with such emphasis that it has not been said with such emphasis even in the Old Testament. The same is the case with the New Testament and the Quran. A Vedic sage says that he is one, saints call him by different names like Agni, Yama, Matrisvan." (Page 148)

"If we have to decide between monotheism and polytheism, then at first sight it will appear that the Vedic religion is polytheistic, but in the sense which we mean by polytheism, this word cannot be used to analyse the Vedic religion. In fact, we have adopted the ideology of polytheism from Rome and Greece. We understand that in polytheism there is an organised form of gods, in which the amount of power of each is different from the other and all of them are the helpers of that God, whom they call Jesus or Jupiter. The polytheism of the Vedas is different from this. It is not only different from that of the Greeks or Romans but it is also different from the Polynesian, American and African sentiments and this difference is like the way a union of self-governing villages is different from a monarchical rule." (Page 149)

Only one God - 

"...the sages had clearly understood that although these names are only nominal, the one whose names are these is one and only one." (Page 151)

"The same learned author (Yaska) says that there is actually only one God...these many gods are different members of the same soul." (Page 223)

The ultimate goal of the Vedas - 

"I can even say that the philosophy of India is the highest religion there. You will be surprised to know that the oldest name of the oldest philosophy of India is Vedanta, that is, the end of the Vedas, the aim of the Vedas or the highest aim of the Vedas." (Page 223)

"People have made no less efforts to reduce the importance of the Vedas, but its importance is the same even today." (Page 227)

"Even illiterate villagers understand many important parts of Vedanta philosophy completely." (Page 227)

Max Muller concluded his lectures by quoting the views of 'Schopenhauer' on the Upanishads thus-

"If you think that the details presented by me are exaggerated, then I will place before you a few words of a great philosopher-critic. This was the specialty of that scholar that it was against his nature to praise the views of others unnecessarily. This famous scholar Schopenhauer, while expressing his views on the Upanishads, has written that- No study in the entire world is as beneficial and uplifting as the study of the Upanishads. This has been the satisfaction of my life and this will be the satisfaction of my death as well." (Page 230)

It is clear from these quotes that by the time of these lectures (1882) Max Muller's views on India, Indian religion and Vedas had changed a lot. But there is no clear indication of the reasons for this change, whether Swami Dayanand Saraswati's Veda Bhashya was the reason for this or not. Max Muller was well acquainted with Swami Dayanand Saraswati's work on Veda Bhashya and Swami Dayanand Saraswati was also always eager to know the reaction of Max Muller and Monier Williams on his work on Veda Bhashya. We have already written about this and between them Shyamji Krishna Verma, who had gone to London to teach Sanskrit, was playing the role of a medium of communication. In the context of all these events, it can be said that the main reason for the change in Max Muller's views must have been Swami Dayanand Saraswati's Veda Bhashya. This is also confirmed by the following statement of Max Muller-

"The literature starting from the Rigveda period till the time of writing of the introduction of Rigvedadibhasya edited by Dayanand can be divided into two parts. It would be appropriate to mention here that the introduction of Rigveda written by Dayanand is also no less interesting." (What should we learn from India - Page 102)

The most regrettable thing is that in the universities of India, the same ideas of Max Muller are taught, which he had written in the initial period in the zeal of Christianity. My suggestion is that in every university where subjects related to Sanskrit language are taught, at least Max Muller's lecture-collection titled 'INDIA WHAT CAN IT TEACH US' (What should we learn from India?) should be included in the textbooks, only then Max Muller-devotees will be able to give up their blind devotion and get some light.