A 13-point criticism of Max Müller’s “Matsya Sukta” by H.P. Blavatsky 1. How an Oxford Orientalist and chief defender of Hinduism makes fun of the First Avatara of Vishnu, for the sole purpose of amusing his friends. 2. Max Müller’s parody is clearly intended to corrupt the Vedas. 3. There is nothing more ridiculous than a self-proclaimed Rishi. 4. Though the Vedic Mantras are not creations of any existing being, Müller had the audacity to call his ludicrous poem a Sukta. 5. Bereft of Viniyoga, Müller’s grossly irreverent little poem serves no other purpose than insolent self-conceit. 6. And his poking infantine fun to deity cast an indelible stain on his legacy. 7. The great Vedic scholar of his day not only used the Vedic form of the Gayatri Metre in his poem, he also failed to mark his words with their proper accents. 8. Since, in every creation, the Vedas are revealed to the same men only, there is no room for new Rishis; and Müller, as his travesty of the first Avatara of Vishnu shows, is most unwise if not actually foolish. 9. His “Matsya Sukta” exposes an undistinguished scholarship in Sanskrit learning, and a marked deficiency in Sanskrit grammar. 10. The poem consists of eight lines only, but even in these few lines, passages from the Rigveda have been plagiarised. 11. For a Sanskrit poet nothing is more disreputable than to “borrow” passages from another’s works. 12. Lakshmi, the Hindu Venus-Aphrodite, is the goddess of wealth, not of happiness. 13. More! Neither the Rishis of modern nor of ancient times were acquainted even with the name of the fish. How then could it be praised by them?

Whenever there is a decline of virtue, an uprising of vice and injustice in the world, a Great Soul incarnates on earth for the establishment of righteousness, the destruction of the wicked, and the preservation of the just. The Hindu Redeemer preceded the Christian by some thousands of years; between the two, Gautama Buddha, reflected Krishna (who appears in every yuga) and projected into the night of the future his own luminous shadow, out of whose collected rays were shaped the outlines of the mythical Jesus, and from whose teachings were drawn those of the historical Christos. Krishna, Gautama, and Jesus appeared like true gods, each in his epoch, and bequeathed to humanity three great religions built on the imperishable rock of ages. If their religions are cleansed from the dross of priestly dogmas, they will be found to be identical for the primitive truths of all three rest on one foundation, the Archaic Wisdom Religion. Kapila, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, Basilides, Marcian, Ammonius and Plotinus, founded schools and sowed the germs of many a noble thought and, disappearing, left behind them the refulgence of demi-gods. As Mussulmans will not admit that their Koran is built on the substratum of the Jewish Bible, so the Christians will not confess that they owe next to everything to the Hindu religions. The most praiseworthy Christians are modified Buddhists, though probably not one of them ever heard of Prince Siddhartha. Cruelty and mercy are finite feelings. But the Supreme Deity is infinite, hence it can only be Just, and Justice must be blind. The doctrine of Vicarious Atonement is one of the most demoralizing of doctrines. Even the faintest glimmering sense of Justice revolts against such a pernicious dogma of atonement by proxy and salvation by prayer. The effects of a cause are never limited to the boundaries of the cause, nor can the results of crime be confined to the offender and his victim. The action may be instantaneous, the effects are eternal.

Myths are now proved to be fables, just in proportion as we misunderstand them; truths, in proportion as they were once understood. Western ignorance is a Hellenic inheritance, much of it the result of Hellenic vanity. See how the European Orientalist has raised himself to the eminence of a philological oracle. In ascribing chronological dates to Indian antiquities, Anglo-Indian as well as European archæologists are often guilty of the most ridiculous anachronisms. Greek chronology is too defective, too bombastic, and too diametrically opposed to fact, to inspire with confidence anyone less prejudiced than the European Orientalist. Comparative mythology bear witness that the religious ideas of the Greeks and most of their gods were derived from the religions flourishing in the northwest of India, the cradle of the main Hellenic stock. Let hypothesis prevail, even though the heavens may fall. As Yavanacharya was the Indian title of a single Greek, Pythagoras, so Shankaracharya was the title of a single Hindu philosopher. Yavanani does not mean Greek writing, it means any foreign writing. The Aryan Mahabharata and the Homeric Trojan War belong to the same cycle of events: both epics are mythical as to personal biographies and fabulous supernumeraries, yet perfectly historical in the main. The Greeks besmirched their noble ancestry by belittling their Hierophants as Troglodytes! Three Hierarchs represented Budhistical and Brahmanical power in pre-Homeric Greece. While the political power of Sri-B’dho-Lemos or Triptolemos was formidable, the cave-dwelling Budhist Priests or Sroo-cula-dutæ, Lords of the Cave, who protected their secret doctrines from profanation, are today belittled as Troglodytai. Further examples of the profound Brahmanical influence in Greece are the Goghos, or Cow-Killer, who became Kakos, i.e., bad. And Soo-Bhoo-ya, or one engaged in abstract meditation, became Sophos, i.e., Wise. Despatis or Land-Lord became Despotes, thus marking the transition from Oligarchic privilege to Democratic tyranny. Sanskrit is the Mother of Greek. As Ouranos destroyed his children from Gaia, so Kronos destroyed his from Rhea. This is an allusion to the fruitless efforts of Earth or Nature alone to create real human men. An auspicious prophecy: the Greek language will wake up once more after the Sanskrit goes to sleep. With glossary of pre-Homeric Indo-Grecian terms.

This book examines the role of Hindu-inspired faith movements (HIFMs) in contemporary India as actors in social transformation. It further situates these movements in the context of the global political economy where such movements cross national boundaries to locate believers among the Hindu diaspora and others. In contemporary neoliberal India, HIFMs have become important actors, and they realize themselves by making public assertions through service. The four pillars of the contemporary presence of such movements are: gurus, sociality, hegemony and social transformation. Gurus, who spearhead these movements, create a matrix of possible meanings in their public discourses which their followers pick up to create messages of personal and social change. Sociality is a core strategy of proliferation across such movements and implies social service, which is qualified by memories of the guru and what they are believed to embody. Hegemony is reflected in the fact that social service in such movements often ominously imbibes right-wing or far-right Hinduism. They propose a model of Hindu-inspired social transformation, involving faith building into and transforming the civil society. The book discusses in a nuanced way several Hindu-inspired faith movements of various hues which have made national and international impact. This topical book is of interest to students and researchers in the fields of sociology, anthropology, social work, and social psychology, with a special interest in the study of religious movements.