ITIS inexcusable that we who think in the Western frame of thought should be as ignorant as we are of the frame of thought of the East. Year after year we have spent our time thinking exclusively in the thought forms of our own Western culture, in practicing or examining the tradition of our own religion, and in evolving our own Western theories of the mind. Few of us have spent even one day of our lives learning about the thought forms that control the minds of millions of our fellow men who adhere to the basic religion of Hinduism. Since in modern days we can no longer deny that all mankind lives in One World, such ignorance of our Eastern cousin’s mind is as dangerous as it is inexcusable.
Does the excited psychology of action and behavior so characteristic of America treat adequately all the capacities of the human mind? Are the powers of meditation revealed through yoga illusory and slightly absurd? Is it conceivable that the energies released through mental discipline are of no potential use to men who live in the West? Ignorance of Eastern thought leads us to give callow and mischievous answers to such questions as these.
Swami Akhilananda makes available to us a nontechnical introduction to the thought of the East. He does so in a direct and lucid style. Understanding and appreciating the significance of much of Western psychology, he is able to point shrewdly to certain improvements that Eastern psychology can offer, and to chasms it may help to fill. At the same time he stresses in a manner agreeable to Americans the applications of Hindu psychology. In this respect he shows that he sympathizes with the pragmatic interest of Americans. He is an architect bent on building a bridge between hemispheres.
I do not mean to say that complete co-ordination between Hindu and American psychology will be easily achieved. In some respects, I am convinced, American psychology would improve in richness and wisdom if it accommodated in some way the wise things that the author says about meditation and the necessity for an adequate philosophy of life. In respect to the more occult manifestations of mental powers to which he occasionally refers, I am not so certain. Whether the occult element in Hindu psychology stems from its relative lack of acquaintance with what we in the West call “scientific method,” or whether this Western “scientific method” is nothing but a narrow cult that blinds itself to uncongenial phenomena, I am not at this moment prepared to say. Perhaps concessions are needed on both sides.
But the problem of the occult plays a minor role in this book. From the author I have learned, as others will, many basic facts about the thought forms of the Hindu religion and the Hindu direction of mental life. Such knowledge is intrinsically rewarding. It is also timely since it helps build for the coming era needed bridges between great families of the human race.
GORDON W. ALLPORT
Psychology Department
Harvard University