remarks on interpretation of scripture and Gita etc

[Dominik Wujastyk]

Regarding Lynken Ghose's interesting clarifications, I would like to add
the concept of privacy.  I hold certain beliefs, some of them only vague
or imperfectly articulated, which are very close to my sense of self, and
which I have no wish to share with people outside my family.

I think that it should be possible to be a private person and still be a
fully-functioning scholar.  I mean this in the sense that one does not be
need to bare one's soul in public in order to deal very professionally and
adequately with historical and cultural questions questions.

It is possible to point to cases where personal faith obtrudes into
matters of interpretation.  This is often said of Zaehner's tr. of the
Bhagavadgita.  However, in that particular case, I find his tr. is
actually richer and more profound because Zaehner took religious matters
very seriously at a personal level.  Yes, to some extent one can say that,
for instance, his "buddhi" = "soul" may seem to stretch a point, but his
arguments for this equation (in the gita) are very cogent.

--
Dominik Wujastyk
Founder, INDOLOGY list.