Count Magnus Fredrik Ferdinand Bjornstjerna (1779-1847)

[KALKI]

Magnus Fredrik Ferdinand Björnstjerna, (born 10 October 1779 in Dresden, died 6 October 1847 in Stockholm), was a Swedish count and military general, son of the envoy to Sachsen Magnus Olof Björnstjerna and his wife, countess Vilhelmina von Hagen. He was the grandson of archbishop Magnus Beronius.

Biography

At the age of 14, Björnstjerna was sent to Sweden, and attained the same year the rank of ensign (Swedish: fänrik) upon enrolling in the The King's Guard. During the Finnish War he was the head adjutant at the Finnish Army's general staff, and participated in the major military campaigns during the war. The same year he was appointed major in the Västmanlands regemente. He was one of the most prominent participants in the Swedish revolution of 1809; when it ended he was sent on a secret mission to Napoleon I.

In 1812 he was appointed general of Kalmar regemente, and participated in the war in Germany, notably the attack on Dessau, the Battle of Fredrikort and other parts of the military campaigns. In 1814 he became major general and participated in warfare on the opposite side of the Rhine. In the same year he became the head of Field marshal Curt von Stedingk's staff, and was appointed to adjutant general of foreign affairs at the army in Norway, where he led the negotiations that led to the Convention of Moss of 1814.

In 1815 he was appointed adjutant general for the Swedish army and in 1820 to lieutenant general. Björnstjerna was from 1828 to 1846 the Swedish Minister Resident in London. In 1815 he was created Baron (Swedish: friherre) stånd, count in 1826, he was appointed the Royal Order of the Seraphim in 1838 and in 1841 the Lord of the Realm. In 1843 he was appointed marshal.

[KALKI]

Count Magnus Fredrik Ferdinand Bjornstjerna (1779-1847) Swedish minister in London, author of The Theogony of the Hindoos with their systems of Philosophy and Cosmogony after quoting from the Vedas says:

"These truly sublime ideas cannot fail to convince us that the Vedas recognize only one God, who is Almighty, Infinite, Eternal, Self-existent, the Light and the Lord of the Universe."

He says: “No nation on earth can vie with the Hindus in respect of the antiquity of their civilization and the antiquity of their religion.”

"In a metaphysical point of view we find among the Hindus all the fundamental ideas of those vast systems which, regarded merely as the offspring of fantasy, nevertheless inspire admiration on account of the boldness of flight and of the faculty of human mind to elevate itself to such remote ethereal regions. We find among them all the principles of Pantheism, Spinozism and Hegelianism, of God as being one with the universe; spiritual life of mankind; and of the return of the emanative sparks after death to their divine origin; of the uninterrupted alternation between life and death, which is nothing else but a transition between different modes of existence. All this we find among the philosophies of the Hindus exhibited as clearly as by our modern philosophers more than three thousand years since."

Referring to the practical character of Hindu philosophy, he said, In this respect the Hindus were far in advance of the philosophers of Greece and Rome, who considered the immortality of the soul as problematical."

"The literature of India makes us acquainted with a great nation of past ages, which grasped every branch of knowledge, and which will always occupy a distinguished place in the history of the civilization of mankind."

(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 203-278).