Chapter (অধ্যায়): INSPIRED TALKS PAGE-40Page: 40 of 526
sight in the sky, but his eye is ever on a bit of carrion on the earth."
The ancient Hindus were wonderful scholars, veritable living encyclopaedias. They said, "Knowledge in books and money in other people's hands is like no knowledge and no money at all."
Shankara was regarded by many as an incarnation of Shiva.
Wednesday, July 10.
There are sixty-five million Mohammedans in India, some of them Sufis.1 Sufis identify man with God, and through them this idea came into Europe. They say, "I am that Truth"; but they have an esoteric as well as an exoteric doctrine, although Mohammed himself did not hold it.
"Hashshashin "2 has become our word "assassin", because an old sect of Mohammedanism killed non-believers as a part of its creed.
A pitcher of water has to be present in the Mohammedan worship as a symbol of God filling the universe.
The Hindus believe that there will be ten Divine Incarnations. Nine have been and the tenth is still to come.
Shankara sometimes resorts to sophistry in order to prove that the ideas in the books go to uphold his philosophy. Buddha was more brave and sincere than any
1 The influence of Hinduism upon Mohammedanism in India gave rise to the sect known as Sufis.
2 The name of a military and religious order existing in Syria in the 11th century and notorious for the number of secret murders committed by its members in obedience to the will of their chief. The literal meaning of the word is "Hashish-eater" and was applied to the order because of their habitual use of this special drug to fortify the murderers for their task.