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dated June 30, 1958: Philosophy of India

Inaugurating on June 28 the Akhila Bharata Madhva Tatwa Tritiya Sammelana in Hyderabad, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of India, said that the unity of India was reflected in the growth and spread of Hindu Indian thought which has its roots in the Vedas. Behind the cavalcade of history, with all its vicissitudes and upheavals, flowed steadily this stream of thought as a sustaining force. The President said: “When I think of the great thinkers and philosophers that our country has produced, I often marvel at their erudition, intellectual prowess, sense of rectitude, and unshakable faith in what they considered to be right and true. To delve deep into the mysteries of the Universe, to probe into the innermost recesses of the cosmos and to theorise from a practical angle, and often from empirical basis, are some of the attributes which we find in Indian thinkers beginning from the Vedic age down to comparatively recent times. As a laymen interested in our past heritage and as a student desirous of acquainting myself with the evolution of human thought, whenever I have read an oft-repeated verse from our Sastras or come across a pithy Sutra, I have invariably experienced a feeling of elation and nearness to real human nature and Truth. So deep was the insight of the sages of yore and so intense their knowledge of human psychology and man’s innermost urges and aspirations that when we go through their works even to-day, we often feel as if a moderner were speaking to us. The reason, I believe, is that shorn of all its superfluities and superficial things, their thoughts grasped the fundamentals of human nature and universal Truth. That is why the great fund of knowledge that has come down to us has proved to be not only universal in character but an abiding source of inspiration to people.”

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