New-York tribune., 1922-12-24
~ Aehmed Abdullah

that the Aryan worships his cultural
d.itiea in a temple devoted to in
diyiduaiistic and specified ideas where eAon
harm. his incense and chants his prayers
before his private idol according 70 his private
pomp and ritual. changing both whenever ne
rrts bored, but ell the time hating and ridi'
eulinx his neighbors' IDOLS with fine hua'
.ite bieotry, while the Mongol, with an
almost platonie sense Of htness. kowtows be-
fore the whole. acknowledging each indi-
yfdual idol and even the changes, but eonsd-
erinR the lot Of them a. purely temporary
manifestations Of the same unehangeable
essence.
~Behold. o Partha, forms Of me, hundred
fold. A thousandfold. diverse. divine" says
Shri KhsbnA, the hute-plAying god, In the
Bagavad GitA.
You can read these forms as life's visions.
You can agree with Plato and call them
ideas, or with Mahatma Gandhi and call them
images Of the Master in our own hearts"
You can aesspt the eKegssis Of such philo'
sophie interpreter Of evolution as Professor
HensIoW and name them favorable Taria-
tions" or 20 all the way back 10 the Darwin
ians and explain them a. strictly animal re
sponSiye actions" II remains the same. They
are nothing but outgrowths OF what Is named
In the SAnskrit the Altman. the Self, living
unehangeably in its essence. yet sver-ehang-
ing In its manifestations, in dynamic nux
Of eosmie eonseiouSness.
Thus, too. the MongOl creed, for the hongoi
can never believe with Nietzsehe that man
Is a thing which has 10 be surpassed. Not
only is the Mongol too sound an arithme-
teian to be caught BY such a fy-trap
spigraph but. being practical In his IDEAL
ism and materaistie in his spiritual CROP
inga. he would rather be the real part OF
common and essential aspiration than the IN
real whole OF an indiyidualiste and non
essential aspiration. And to him the whole 10
nature. He has no use nor patience Tor the
frigid symbolism Of faddish, cultural aero
battles The starry loneliness Of an empty
idea does not strike him as either starry or
lonely, but as empty. He prefers By the
same token delicate network Of subtle
associations, linking human life to the whole
the life Of earth. sky and the waters, i'm
buing il all with Taoist eoneeptions-to
strictly cerebral scheme Ghich develops, as
does Aryan culture and cultural philosophy
a mechanical and supermannish Jack the
Giant-killer who, when ali the giants lie dead
and CORY at his feet. must logically 90 the
next step and kill himself.
Two THE Mongol beauty, a. does idealism,
must grow out Of life; Il must not be
thing imagined, thing pantomimie. To the
Aryan Il is the other way about. could not
picture 10 myself Chinese romanticist
speaking 10 Young China rs Fichte spoke to
Young Germany-of 'life's inner values
without giving the key 90 the riddle Of these
values. There is indeed q mandarin ideo-
graph which covers the term "life's inner
values" But, exactly a. the Sanskrit word
GroHatGpas. it signifies these inner values,
including their relations 70 living. breath
ing. immensely practical nature,
II Is this cosmic consciousness which gives
10 the arts Of the Mongo that humble and
/ not az all Word'worthiau relation OF the hu-
man 70 al nature about him; which makes 20
the Mongol artist or poet OF all nature, Of its
/ wholeness and Is frcencss, spiritual home,
and 10 which we owe such painters at Ku-
jisada and Hokusai and such poets as Tu-
~ and Li-po. u Is, Furthermore, this eosmic
eonsciousness- Tor. ipso faeto there can be
no corresponding phraseology where the
master-thought does not exist--which makes
il such q heart-breaking task 20 render
Chinese verse into any Of the Aryan
languages.
I happen 70 be familiar with many Of IL
NOS Moons iu the origfnaf Chinese and