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Summary
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers that India has ever had. He also served as the first Vice President of India from 1952 to 1962 and later on became went on to become the second President of India in 1962 and stayed in office till 1967. He was born into a simple middle class Tamil family in the town of Tiruttani, Tamil Nadu on 5th September 1888. From a very early age he showed signs of greatness and excelled in academics. He went on to study at the Madras Christian College and in 1921 was appointed for the prestigious King George V Chair in Philosophy for the University of Calcutta. He promulgated Vedanta, a form of Hinduism that is supposed to be the religion of the spirit and the ultimate source of power to the soul. He was the first Indian scholar who explained to the Western thinkers the true form of Indian philosophy. He published many works about the Indian philosophy and is regarded as the torch bearer of Indian philosophy in the West. He bridged the gap that existed between the East and West and hence amalgamated philosophy into one whole being.
Early life:
Sarvepalli Gopal was born into a Hindu Brahmin family on the 5th of September 1888 in the small town of Tiruttani in Tamil Nadu. His parents were devout Hindus and Tiruttani being a temple town and pilgrimage centre Radhakrishnan too got influenced greatly by the Adavita philosophy of Shankara at an early age. His father earned a meagre income and Radhakrishnan studied at the Gowdie School in Tirupati from 1896. after studying there for a while Radhakrishnan studied at the Hermannsburg Evangelical Lutheran Missionary School. Radhakrishnan was greatly influenced by the Christian theology and the devotional activities in the town of Tirupati. From 1900 to 1904 he attended the Elizabeth Rodman Voorhees College in Vellore. Here he saw how the Christian missionaries were doing well for the society and also preaching the gospel to the Hindu people. He thus found universality between his own Advaita line of thought and the Christian teachings.
He got married to Sivakamuamma in 1904 and she remained his wife for over 50 years. They had six children, five daughters and a son. Slowly and steadily Radhakrishnan got involved in the freedom struggle. He was greatly touched by Swami Vivekananda and V.D.Savarkar’s writings. The theosophical society that was very active in Arcot also found resonance in him. This really changed his outlook towards life as a whole. But it was not until he joined Madras Christian College that he started to pen down his own forms of philosophy and the Vedanta religion. This phase gave him a kind of self reliance and insight into ones own being.
At the Madras Christian College Radhakrishnan got a first hand touch of European philosophy. He started reading the likes of Hegel, Plato, Aristotle, and Berkeley among many others. His MA supervisor Professor A.G.Hogg introduced him to a variety of philosophical and theological views. Hogg himself had studied under the renowned theologian Albrecht Ritschl and thus his philosophies trickled down to Radhakrishnan. He also found it imperative to study the Hindu line of thought so that he could challenge the Christian polemic that had left many of his questions unanswered. He prepared a thesis on Vedanta to challenge the notion that the Vedanta system had no room for ethics.
Middle Life:
During the 1st World War Radhakrishnan’s reputation as a scholar began to grow. From 1914 to 1920 he published many articles around ten of which got published in international journals such as the International Journal of Ethics, The Monist and Mind. The events during this period such as the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre and the general death and destruction of the World War made him question the very roots of Western philosophy and thought. He not only confronted this but also presented Vedanta as the correct alternative to Western thinkers. The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy which was published in 1920 reflected this turmoil that he was going through. During this period he was particularly influenced by the writings of Rabindranath Tagore and the ideas of aesthetics and intuition got embedded in Radhakrishnan’s own philosophy.
In 1921 Radhakrishnan was offered the esteemed post of the George V Chair in Philosophy at the University of Calcutta. Many Bengali thinkers opposed this move and Radhakrishnan had to confront a lot of debate and criticism. During this period he published his two volume work of Indian Philosophy. In 1926 he was invited to Oxford for the Upton Lectures. He published some major works during this period such as A Hindu View of Life, Hibbert Lectures and An Idealist View of Life. As the rift between the Hindu and Muslims increased Radhakrishnan sought a way as to minimise the damage done. The Satyagraha of Gandhi, the demand for Swaraj had a great impact on him and he presented the Advaita Vedanta thoughts as the ultimate way of doing away with inner turmoil of an individual.
In 1931 Radhakrishnan was knighted and the same year he took up the post of Vice Chancellor at Andhra University. He served for five years and in 1936 Oxford appointed him to the H.N. Spalding Chair of Eastern Religions and Ethics. In 1939 he took up Vice Chancellorship of Benaras Hindu University and served there till Gandhi’s death in 1948. After he resigned from BHU he was appointed as the chairman of the University Education commission. Radhakrishnan did a lot for this commission and brought in many reforms and restructuring. Throughout this period he opposed the communal feelings that were growing in India and sought for an autonomous and United India to be ruled by the intellectuals of the nation.
Later Life:
After India became independent Radhakrishnan became actively involved in the nation’s politics and international affairs. He was part of the executive board to the newly formed UNESCO from 1946 to 1951. Also during this period he served for two years as member of the Constituent Assembly. Upon completion of the University Education Commission report Prime Minister Nehru appointed Radhakrishnan as the Indian ambassador to Moscow.
In 1952 he was elected Member of the Rajya Sabha and subsequently the Vice President of India. He remained in this office till 1962. He put his philosophy and line of thought to practice during this period and hence was elected the Second President of India in 1962. He served till 1967. When he was elected President many of his friends and colleagues wanted to celebrate his birthday in a grand way. He said "Instead of celebrating my birthday, it would be my proud privilege if 5th September is observed as Teachers' Day." Henceforth every year this day is celebrated as Teacher’s Day as homage to this great personality.
During this period there was an increasing distrust and tension throughout the world. Events like the Korean War, the Hungarian Crises, the Indo China War and most importantly the ongoing Cold War greatly disturbed him. He called for International co-operation and solidarity to create universal peace and acceptance. He denounced organisations like the League of Nations which he believed to be monopolies and was for the formation of more creative internationalism based on spirituality. Tolerance among people and between nations is what he promoted.
Radhakrishnan retired from public life in 1967. He spent the subsequent years in the house he had built in Mylapore, Madras. He died on 17th April 1975.
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Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan |
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Quotations by/on
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
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" It is not God that is worshipped but the group or authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity. " -
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" We have to remember that the highest religion of the Upanishads, which insists on meditation and morality and worship of God in spirit and truth, is not encumbered by such traditional dogmas and miracles as still hang upon the skirts of other religions. Its central principle that there is one supreme reality that manifests itself in the universe is not asserted as a dogma. It is the ultimate truth at which it is possible for human understanding to arrive. The progress of science and philosophy does not conflict with it but only confirms it. " -
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" God’s dwelling place is in the heart of man. The inner immortal soul and the great cosmic power are one and the same. Brahman is Atman and Atman is Brahman. " -
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" When we rise in contemplation, when there is the vision of the Supreme which is entirely beyond the power of the soul to prepare for or bring about, we feel it is wholly the operation of God working on the soul by extraordinary grace. In a sense all life is from God, all prayer is made by the help of God’s grace, but the heights of contemplation which are scaled by few are attributed in a special degree to divine grace. " -
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" When the veil of intellectual knowledge, of avidya, is swept aside, a flood of light breaks upon the awakened soul and a Universal Self is achieved. " -
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Testimonials about
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
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Great Thinker and Philosophers.. Wish you very happy Birthday..
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