"Usually it IS said that the East is hopelessly backward and needs to catch up with the West. But, a consideration of the legacy of these great civilizations suggests, says Wood that the West has some catching up to do. It needs to learn from the East a way of cultivating its inner space, of accepting limits and desires in an increasingly finite world." "In the past 200 years one form of civilization, that of the West, has changed the balance of nature for ever. And now it IS civilization itself which has become a central problem of our world." History is full of empires of the sword, but India alone created an empire of the spirit." "India was one of the earliest of the great civilizations and it defined the goals of civilized life very differently from the West. The West raised individualism, materialism, rationality, [and] masculinity as it ideals. India's great tradition insisted on non- violence, renunciation, the inner life, [and] the female as pillars of civilization. And through all the triumphs and disasters of her history she hung on to that ideal, an eternal quest to identify humanity with the whole of creation, a unity in diversity ..."
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As Quoted and attributed in Londhe, S. (2008). A tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and wisdom spanning continents and time about India and her culture Wood, Michael India: Empire of the Spirit quoted from program 2 of the television documentary Legacyhttp://www. ambrosevldeo. com! displayitem.cfm?vid=292
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Wood
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Michael Wood
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