Aryan Humanism

By Christian Lindtner Ph.D. (Indology)

To understand Aryan wisdom, in practice, means that one has to make oneself familiar with the ancient classical writings of the Indians , the Greeks and the Romans. Ideally, one would have to take up the study of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. However, the fundamental sources in question are also available in modern scholarly and annotated translations. They are easily available from any library, and most texts are available in print from various academic publishers (Oxford, Cambridge, Penguin,etc.; for India, contact Motilal Banarsidass, Bungalow Road, New Delhi, India.)

First of all, one must carefully study the writings of Plato and Aristotle. These are the most important Greek philosophers. Among the Roman authors one should study the philosophical writings of Cicero and Seneca. The Roman historian Tacitus is also indispensable. He wrote:

"This I hold to be the chief office of history, to rescue virtuous actions from oblivion to which a want of records would consign them, and that men should feel a dread of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, from their depraved expressions and base actions."

The fundamental notion of Greek and Roman philosophy is virtue (areté in Greek, virtus in Latin). Virtue is only to be found in a man of virtue, that is in true human activity. It has four aspects, science (that has to do with truth), justice (that has to do with our relationship to society), courage (necessary for upholding truth and justice), and temperance (necessary because it takes time to bring virtue to perfection). True happiness is only to be found in a man of virtue. The practice of virtue is the ultimate aim of man, and of society.

In ancient India, as found in all Sanskrit scriptures, the basic ideal of man and society is expressed in the term dharma. It means virtue, decency, law and order. It covers much the same ground as art‘ of the Greeks, and virtues of the Romans. Dharma only exists to the extent that it is practised. Virtue consists in action.

All Sanskrit philosophers agree, unanimously, that dharma has two aspects, a practical and a theoretical. One has to behave decently, and to understand correctly. Scientific knowledge has, exactly as in Plato and Aristotle, to do with a knowledge of the true and natural causes of things in time and space.

Man is a microcosm, a small part of the larger macrocosm. Under normal circumstances, however, man fails to recognize himself as such. This is because he has failed to develop his dormant intellectual powers.

The Aryan ideal is to realize the identity of microcosm and macrocosm. The duality can only be overcome through the exertion of reason. In Sanskrit: buddhi, mati, dhŒ, prajnƒ; in Greek vous, logos; in Latin ratio, intellectus, etc.). The ideal, in other words, is to purify one's mind. To purify one's mind one must purify one's daily habits. This is to live a life of virtue.

There are many erroneous notions about yoga. Basically yoga means spiritual exertion. Yoga is often defined as the practice of the double dharma. Properly understood, then, yoga is simply the practice of the four aspects of areté, or virtus. By means of reason, i.e. by means of buddhi, ratio, etc., we understand the true and natural causes of things in nature. This, finally, brings about a happy and peaceful state of mind.

This, then is the ancient Aryan ideal of Wisdom. (The main Indian sources are The Laws of Manu, and the Bhagavad-Gita, easily available in modern translations. Important are also the Buddhist and Jana scriptures, all of which have to do with Dharma.)

A scientific understanding of the laws of nature, i.e. of the macrocosm, can, as said, only be found , through the exertion of reason, in the microcosm. The Aryan ideal is a thoroughly humane ideal. It has nothing to do with religious superstition. Experience shows that human individuals in full possession of the moral and intellectual are rare. Hero worship, therefore, is an integral part of the Aryan life.

The Aryan ideal was recognized by the great heroes of European civilization. When Thomas Jefferson introduced the democratic experiment, this did not mean that he sacrificed the ideal of "an aristocracy of virtue and talent". (The phrase he borrowed from Cicero: virtus et ingenium.)

Pandit Nehru was right when, in his Discovery of India, he claimed that India's greatest legacy to world's civilisation consisted in the Sanskrit language. If we ask what is so precious about Sanskrit, one answer is that the Sanskrit texts have transmitted the Aryan ideal of dharma and yoga in its pristine purity.

In our century the Aryan ideal has come under vicious and deceitful attacks from various quarters, including Marxism and corrupt "democracy".

An enormous threat to the progress of Aryan, or European, civilisation is also posed by the three religions of Abraham [Judaism, Christianity and Islam], . The Aryan ideal, as indicated, sees no contradiction between religious and scientific ideals. It is opposed to, on the one hand, the atheism of Marxism etc., and , on the other, the superstitions of the three aberrations of the Abrahamic religions. It is not denied that there are valuable elements in these three religions, but historians of religion recognize that almost everything of value in the three Abrahamic religions has been borrowed from the Indians, Greeks and Romans.

It is often claimed that Judaism and Christianity have "enriched" Western civilisation. From a historical point of view it must be maintained that it is rather the other way around: European, or Aryan civilisation has enriched Judaism, Christianity, and even Islam.

The great Indologist, Christian Lassen, in his Indische Altertumskunde (Bonn 1847) wrote: " The Aryans are the most highly organized, the most enterprising and the most creative among the peoples; they are also the youngest, because the earth only produced the most perfect species of plants and animals at a late date. This relationship will ultimately reveal itself in a similar way in the political field..".

In this century certain authors have argued that "The Aryan Myth", i.e. the emphasis on biology, the deserved triumph of the strongest, the pre-eminence of youth, the superiority of the Whites, has justified what is claimed to be " the most terrible and destructive mass movement history has ever recorded" (quoted from L‚on Poliakov, The Aryan Myth, New York l996).

Now, this accusation, that "the Aryans" are somehow responsible for the so-called Holocaust of the Jews, is a very serious one indeed. If "the Aryans", or at least those in Germany, were really responsible for the abominable murder of six million Jews, who, then, must not detest the Aryan ideal of virtue? But what if the allegation is not true? In that case we must be dealing with what is surely one of the most obnoxious cases of calumny in history.

In order to defend themselves, or rather: in order to defend their ideals of truth and decency, it is, therefore, the obvious duty of all Aryans to study the alleged Holocaust in a scientific manner. Jews have often claimed that Romans, or Europeans, have murdered millions of Jews. A passage in the Talmud, for instance, claims that the emperor Vespasian "killed in the city of Bethar four hundred thousand myriads (= 400,000 X 10,000 = four billion)" innocent Jews.

According to another passage in the Talmud, Gittin 58a, p. 269: " Sixteen million Israelite school children were wrapped in scrolls and burned alive by the Romans at Bethar." In October l9l9, The American Hebrew spoke of a holocaust, in Europe, of six million Jews. Today, the mass media every day repeat that six million Jews were murdered by Hitler.

What is history? What is myth? - Only science can decide. The Aryan ideal is an ideal of truth. It is an ideal open to all, also,of course, Jews. Holocaust has become a matter of truth, and of justice. Says a text ascribed to the Buddha (Dhammapada 393):

"Not by matted hair, not by lineage, not by caste does one become a Brahmin. He is a Brahmin in whom there are truth and justice. And he is blessed." - True Aryans, true Brahmins, are defined in terms of the Aryan virtues.

http://www.patriot.dk/aryan.html