BY PRAGYAN SHARMA POLAVARAPU
1
My
writing in this part of my blog is out of my interest in old
classical English dramas, poems ,novels etc that possess such indescribable beauty of style. My writing is thus focused on the ancient
history of English language . The quest to know history of the language led to
curiosity about the people who speak it and about their philosophic and spiritual orientation. So, examined here
is a very ancient period in history of Europe. There is a well known saying of
some historians that though England
(i.e. total Britain ) is not geographically in Europe it is of Europe. It
is culturally part of Europe and is a
leading player. The old Greek culture and philosophic tradition and the later Roman philosophic tradition dominated
Europe since around 2500 years . The ancient culture and philosophy are reflected in Iliad and Odyssey the beautiful old
Greek mythological works.
I write only with a very limited understanding of such history . The study is not of religion(the holy light) but of English literature ( old classical English
poems, dramas, novels, short stories and essays) based in that spirituality. Such
study of ancient history,culture and
philosophy helps one to understand the minds and sensitivities of
the distinguished literary people.
2
The earliest phase of European Christianity was
deeply colored with the ancient Greco-Roman
philosophy. In those ancient times,before birth of Christianity in
Europe, the distant European regions
like Germany , Scandinavia and central and eastern Europe followed their own nature-oriented religious philosophies .
Only after perhaps 6th/7th/8th centuries AD etc the light and radiance of
Christianity(already flourishing in the Roman Empire) shone on them . The
distant European lands including parts of
England 2000 years ago had a simple
beautiful rural culture –just as anywhere in world. Those periods were far on the Time Scale---(perhaps a thousand
years far)-- from the epochs and imagery of modern Europe. All great civilizations
undergo such changes .In the history of later Europe there are many stages -- dynastic
wars among royal families , wars for naval supremacy among nations, wars among
European nations for spices and silks of the East, , competition for industrial
dominance, rise of vast standing armed forces in many countries with highly destructive
weapons , engaging in slave trade, establishing colonies to get raw materials
and to export finished goods, continent-wide and world-wide wars etc. There are
similar milestones in all old civilizations on a lesser scale . However ancient
Europe 2000 years ago was not a picture
of breakneck competition as we see today
in modern jet age. The ancient kings and the nobles lived in
their palaces aloof, separate from the
common people and ever busy with their dynastic wars. The hard working commoners lived in a conservative rural agricultural
environment and led their slow lives with
spiritual religious minds . They,
just as in all ancient rural societies anywhere, feared the invisible angry gods for fear of award of harsh punishments in afterlife. Seaside
European communities must have had great sea going traditions and large scale organized
fishing trade.
3
Nowa days some countries speak of several
“modernizations”—the first
modernization, the second modernization etc.If we take such a view about ancient Europe
of 2000 or 3000 years ,the first modernization of Europe is surely the arrival
of light of Christianity-- first in the ancient Roman empire and then in all
Europe by stages. It was like a brilliant light shone on Europe from outer space. The arrival of ancient Christianity must have brought great change in the minds of people and made them contemplative ,serious and
disciplined. This first European
Christianity, protected by mighty Roman
emperors, is known as Roman Catholic
religion.
Students of distant countries may not be aware that
Christianity was originally an Asiatic religion. It was followed by the
Asiatic rural societies of the Mediterranean region and west Asia. Lord Jesus Christ preached a crystallized philosophy of
pure love and hope to a poverty
ridden complex rural society living under harsh Roman rule . Lord Jesus preached
unbelievably sweet new philosophy --“Just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise”
.Lord Jesus preached about showing compassion
to the poor , about following a philosophy of forgiveness with a magnanimous
heart , about loving even the enemies by understanding their deficiencies . Most
importantly Lord Jesus pointed that even the poorest, helpless common person has great divinity
inside him. Lord Jesus had a devoted
group of twelve disciples, the “Apostles”.
They were very simple people without much learning
but were inspired men with feeling hearts and great philosophic minds
and feeling sad about the suffering poor people. They were contemporaries and close
disciples of Lord Jesus Christ. They were deeply inspired by the wonderful philosophy of love
preached by Lord Jesus christ . The Apostles are greatly revered because
they spent their entire lives daringly preaching the philosophy of Lord Jesus
disregarding the criticism and jeering and the later harsh punishments and torture they faced from
the Roman rulers. Of the twelve Apostles,
ten were most cruelly killed by Roman
rulers by methods like crucifixion and
beheading and stoning to death. The only reason for the harsh punishments was their
extreme devotion to Lord Jesus and their fearless part in propagating
those teachings of divine love and
compassion. Of the remaining two, one disciple Judas Iscariot in a weak moment
disclosed the whereabouts and identity of Lord Jesus resulting in the horrific crucifixion
of Lord Jesus. He soon repented and committed suicide. Another Apostle St John could
luckily escape the wrath of Roman rulers
and preached the message of Lord Jesus
till ripe old age. Many Christians revere the Apostles by taking their names as the first part of their
personal names .
4
The contribution of the two
saints St. Peter and St. Paul ---both
of whom lived in first century AD and were
contemporaries of Lord Jesus ---is
central to the spread of Christianity in Europe in the very ancient
times . They were his most devoted followers.
(a) St Peter is famous as the "Rock" upon which the early Christianity
was founded in Europe .He first preached only to Asiatic people in the Mediterranean
region but later started preaching also in Rome city (capital of roman empire) and
also in other nearby parts of Europe to the gentiles (Europeans).Above all he
created a permanent church organization and permanent church practices at the places which he visited . He was the first
saint who attracted Europeans into Christian religion and established the main Christian church organization in the
capital city of Rome. St Peter is called the first Pope of the Roman Catholic
church.
(b)St Paul contributed equally
in giving a strong foundation to Christianity in ancient Europe. He was not a
direct disciple of Lord Jesus like St Peter and other Apostles and was first strongly opposed spread of Christianity in Roman lands . But he
underwent a great spiritual change and became the most devoted follower of Lord Jesus realizing the moral
depth of teachings of Lord Jesus . He is revered next only to St Peter .He made
extensive journeys in the European areas of Roman empire and being
a great scholar preached the teachings of Lord Jesus in a masterly way and discussed it with big Roman and Greek scholars
.He declared that Europeans(Gentiles)
could follow some of their old pre-Christian
customs even after coming to Christian religion.He provided
moral and spiritual guidance to the
gentiles and helped in amicably
solving differences between European and Asian scholars about the philosophy of
Lord Jesus. He wrote philosophic and moral works known as “Epistles” which are even now treated
as very important in both Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity. St Paul's contributions were fundamental
to making Christianity all pervasive
in Europe and becoming accepted by
intellectuals and royal families. St Paul is the most important saint in European Christianity
next only to St Peter.
Every year the feasts of St Peter and
St Paul are celebrated all over Europe
with great reverence and love.
5
The ancient Roman rulers of the times
of first century AD,seeing that the
simple Christian religion was growing
popular day by day among the Mediterranean Asian people, felt that it as a kind
of secret anti-Roman subversive movement
. The Roman people were accustomed to an
urban and military oriented life . Their
daily life ,economy, customs and culture
were
rooted since centuries in the ancient Greco- Roman way of life. The Roman governors treated Lord Jesus and
his bold dedicated disciples as subversive people. The result was one of
the greatest tragedies of humanity. Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Even while
dying Lord Jesus gave a sublime message
of love and declared that his tormentors
were not capable of understanding their
cruelty and asked god to forgive them ! The most cruel tragedy of crucifixion
of Lord Jesus only made his followers more
ready to sacrifice their own lives for
the sake of preaching love,high morality and non-violence in a backward violence
prone society. The military rulers gave
to the Apostles also most cruel
punishments. Some were crucified and some were beheaded. But the horrific punishments had only the opposite effect . The
love and respect for Lord Jesus increased by leaps and bounds not only among
the Mediterranean Asian people but also among Greek and Roman scholars and
intellectuals and also common people among the Romans. In course of time, within a few centuries,
the Roman emperors showed their great liking and reverence of the crystallized
moral ideas and love preached
by Lord Jesus Christ . The Roman scholars and intellectuals were deeply impressed by the core moral principles
. The later Roman emperors made Christianity as the state religion of the empire.
With the support of Roman emperors and the support of new European kingdoms , Christianity became a majestic
spiritual structure encompassing all Europe commanding respect of emperors, kings and
military generals. The Pope the head
of Roman Catholic church in Rome became the supreme head of all Christians from
religious and spiritual view point. In course of centuries ,hundreds of
thousands of churches and monasteries(places of high spirituality) were built
in town and villages .Majestic cathedrals adorned every big European city .
6
History tells us that during the
fifth century BC Lord Buddha the founder of Buddhism preached in India a great message of love, compassion,
non-violence and uplift of poor . He was the crown prince of a large kingdom in
north east India and lived in great comfort and luxury . But he was since
childhood very contemplative and was greatly affected by the sorrows of poor
people. At age of twenty nine he left the
kingdom and left all the wealth and palaces and and became an ascetic and devoted his life to uplifting poor. He had a
highly inspired band of devotees. For next 50 years Lord Buddha toured the
country on foot with his disciples and taught sublime philosophy of love, morality and service to the poor until he died at age
of 80. He and his great disciples just
lived on alms and lived as ascetics preaching
high morality, love and compassion . Many kings,princes and scholars were moved
by his teachings and became Buddhists and helped in spreading his noble teachings
.His teachings and philosophy attracted great intellectuals and developed into
the religion of Buddhism and is spread now
in many countries of the world. Lord Buddha is greatly revered by Hindus and is
treated by them as an earthly
incarnation of god almighty of the universe.
In modern days,during India’s freedom struggle agaiainst British
empire, the great philosopher- patriot and India’s “Father of the Nation” Mahatma
Gandhi (1869-1948) strictly applied a philosophy of love,non violence and uplift of
the down trodden and won political
freedom for India . He was a person of high western education and lived in England
for his legal studies. He went to south Africa to argue legal cases and always
fought for justice and truth. He associated with western scholars, philosophers
and statesmen in south Africa during the period 1893-1914 and ably guided a big human rights movement there to help Indian labourers secure their rights and drew the attention of
entire world. Later while leading India’s freedom struggle Mahatma Gandhi always
adopted a strict non-violent way for
more than 30 years and inspired thousands of Indian freedom fighters with his
high moral principles. He forsook the
western style of life and western dressing and wore only a loin cloth like the
poor struggling Indian rural farmer of those days. His philosophy of non-violence ,truthfulness and love came from depths of his heart. His philosophy
is much appreciated by thinkers in this
modern world of highly destructive
modern wars and of nuclear weapons .
We should take an optimistic view of
life in this golden age of science and technology, in this age of jet travel and computers and think positively about building a new
world order of great prosperity and friendship between all races, religions, philosophies
of the world . In this modern age it is wrong to think on narrow lines and we
should treat all people of earth as
equal.The modern global world requires only great love --love for the poor people
who still exist in millions and are spread in all countries of the world. It is
heartening to note that in spite of hurdles at every step thousands of scholars and technocrats patiently and selflessly work hard to
build a new global world of peace and prosperity.
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