2023-08-17 01:53:29 by ambuda-bot
This page has not been fully proofread.
RY OF CULTURE
संस्कृति मंत्र
GOVERNMENT OF
SL
A
of knowledge, educated people still listen
with delight to these stories, it is because
even they have not outgrown the credulity
of childhood. What appeals to the
childhood of the human race appeals
even to grown-up individuals in civilised
societies. Bernard Shaw has remarked
that there is evidence for a law of con-
servation of credulity. Our appetite for
the marvellous still persists in the hidden
recesses of the mind. Stories of miracles
are to be found in the Bible and in the
literature of most religions. It is these
defects which first strike the superficial
observer who is unable to separate the
pearls of truth and wisdom from the
shells in which they are imbedded.
Macaulay made fun of the history and
geography of the Hindus, "of history
abounding with kings thirty feet high
and reigns thirty thousand years long,
and geography made up of seas of treacle
and seas of butter". But no educated
Hindu takes these descriptions for history
or geography.
FOREWORD
Dismissing these stories as intended for
the entertainment of undeveloped minds,
we find in the Bhagavata the highest
truths of religion and philosophy and the
highest principles of ethics expounded in
appropriate language. The lilt of the
verse in the Bhagavata has a peculiar
charm of its own; it varies with the
संस्कृति मंत्र
GOVERNMENT OF
SL
A
of knowledge, educated people still listen
with delight to these stories, it is because
even they have not outgrown the credulity
of childhood. What appeals to the
childhood of the human race appeals
even to grown-up individuals in civilised
societies. Bernard Shaw has remarked
that there is evidence for a law of con-
servation of credulity. Our appetite for
the marvellous still persists in the hidden
recesses of the mind. Stories of miracles
are to be found in the Bible and in the
literature of most religions. It is these
defects which first strike the superficial
observer who is unable to separate the
pearls of truth and wisdom from the
shells in which they are imbedded.
Macaulay made fun of the history and
geography of the Hindus, "of history
abounding with kings thirty feet high
and reigns thirty thousand years long,
and geography made up of seas of treacle
and seas of butter". But no educated
Hindu takes these descriptions for history
or geography.
FOREWORD
Dismissing these stories as intended for
the entertainment of undeveloped minds,
we find in the Bhagavata the highest
truths of religion and philosophy and the
highest principles of ethics expounded in
appropriate language. The lilt of the
verse in the Bhagavata has a peculiar
charm of its own; it varies with the