It is supposed that India is the only land without any historical moral codes or regulations to rule and govern its people and flourished precisely based on its religious and spiritual roots. People here simply led their life just by understanding the process of life around them. There was none to lead and guide them. They were imparted knowledge and wisdom through natural process of experience and understanding
There is a fundamental difference between the western philosophy as well as its approach to life and Indian religion as well as their lifestyle. The Greek philosophy pioneered the western philosophy as the Greeks discovered the concept of ‘state’ and its administrative system.
The religious and spiritual wisdom of the east originated in India and came down through ages as the lofty human ideals, while the western philosophy of state and patriotism to it is the highest of human ideals. Thus, the East and the West were in total contradiction in ancient times.
The book, ‘Eastern Religions and Western Thought’ by Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, explores this contradiction as well as conflict quite logically and argumentatively. It deals with the origins of the modern society and the fundamental reasons of conflict and contradiction between modern men.
The greatest ideal in the world is the one that helps an individual to discover himself and stand at the climax of his aspiration. On the other hand, the philosophy of a state helps a man with the root framework of survival, but it fails to satisfy the longing of the soul to know him.
Life is meaningless if it has no means to understand oneself and reach to one’s perfection when one is struggling for survival. Eastern religions are impregnated with the necessary means to understand and explore oneself through systems such as meditation, yoga, etc.
In western philosophy, however, logic and reasoning is the highest system of thought. This commands human life to understand the happenings around us through logic and reasoning. Evidently, this system works on the very individual human experience almost in the heartless mechanical process continuing devoid of individual and spiritual needs.
As the modern man becomes wealthier, safe and secure, he also becomes more worried, frightened, empty and uncertain. Now the mankind is gradually realising the critical mistake it did by adopting a baseless logical system devoid of sympathy and awareness to an individual spirit which is behind all happenings around us.
There can be no reasoning on the system of thought to lead man to his higher self. The wars, struggles and politics of the last two hundred years, undoubtedly proved the logic and reasoning to be a giant to chew and spit out the human spirit, only to prove it true.