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432. Horace Alexander (1899 - 1989) was an English Quaker, diplomat, teacher and writer, pacifist and ornithologist. He was the youngest of four sons of Joseph Gundry Alexander (1848–1918). One of his brothers was biologist Wilfred Backhouse Alexander. He has observed that:
"Western scholars of our age, when they talk of heritage of the ancient world, still commonly confine themselves to the Mediterranean countries, with Mesopotamia and Arabia and Persia possibly included. The ancient cultures of China and India are omitted.
“It is impossible to do justice to the profound insights and philosophical majesty of the Bhagavad Gita as a whole.”
“The wisdom of ancient India, which has sustained the lives of millions through the centuries, is in fact highly relevant to the sickness of our world order.”
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"But the idea that the Hindu tradition is dead, an idea commonly accepted on the authority of Macaulay and others in 19th century England, needs to be revised. The India of the Buddha, the Mahabharata, and especially of the Bhagavad Gita, has come to a new birth. It is important, therefore, that we examine both its roots and its new vitality."
“It is impossible to do justice to the profound insights and philosophical majesty of the Bhagavad Gita as a whole.”
“The Gita emphasizes that the activities of the world must go on. The good man does the tasks to which he is called and which appertain to his place in society. In all his activities, he does things like others outwardly; but inwardly he maintains a spirit of detachment. He does everything without selfish motive, and maintains equilibrium of mind. Self-knowledge is, in fact, the way from immaturity to maturity. Many illiterate and poor Indian villagers are more mature as persons than their western city counterparts, who have wealth, knowledge of the kind that can be acquired through books, technical skills and the other attributes of western civilization. The Gita shows man the way to live a complete and satisfying life."
“The wisdom of ancient India, which has sustained the lives of millions through the centuries, is in fact highly relevant to the sickness of our world order.”
“Many westerners are suspicious of “oriental wisdom” because they think of it in terms of metaphysical speculation, or in terms of gross superstition. The Gita is a very remarkable book. Hinduism is perhaps the least dogmatic and the most tolerant of religions.”
(source: Consider India: An essays in values - By Horace Alexander p. 1 - 26).
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