Publication details
Česká Bhagavadgíta v boji proti duchovnímu úpadku
| Title in English | Czech Bhagavadgita in the Strugle against Spiritual Decline |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2005 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Religio: Revue pro religionistiku |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Philosophy and religion |
| Keywords | Hinduism - West - Acculturation |
| Description | Czech society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was coming through moral and spiritual crisis connected with its transformation into modern society. Strong critics of contemporary conditions and of inability of Christianity and positivistic science to help in this situation were intellectuals related to occultism. Their aim was to spread spirituality, which was seen as the only solution to the problem. Their use of representations of Hindu religions (especially yoga and vedanta) in these controversies had strong impact on their interpretations and consequently on the whole process of their acculturation. In my article I analyse the first Czech translations of Bhagavadgita (by F. Čupr [1877], V. Procházka [1900], P. Maternová [1920], K. Weinfurter [1926]) to show the dialectics of this interpretation-utilisation process. All of the discussed translations tend to interpret Bhagavadgt in agreement with gnostic-mystical understanding of Christianity. Explanation of this phenomenon I see in the facts that a) Europeans (Westerners) could not (and usually still cannot) think otherwise simply because they did not learn to do so; b) mystical discourse is highly compatible with liberal individualism and with (at that time popular) anticlerical and antichurch attitude; c) gnosticism was appropriate instrument to discredit materialism (especially that of science) blamed for causing spiritual and moral crises. Such a radical shift in interpretation was made possible by certain modern philosophical thoughts that led to the notion that not the word but the spirit of the scripture is significant for right understanding. These thoughts included antipathy to church religion and to ritual, emphasis on internally experienced religion, tendency to differentiate between esoteric and exoteric teaching and religious universalism. |
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