{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 113/1909-08-30/p015","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"We must understand these things clearly if we really wish to comprehend the evolution of the world. We must value the Gospel of St. John more highly than anything else but it is also natural that a Christian should not be satisfied with the mere letter, but should penetrate through, as spiritual science does, into the spiritual content of the Gospel according to St. John. It is natural that he should say: ‘It only becomes what it ought to be to me when I pierce through into that of which it is the outer expression.’ But anyone who wishes to adopt the right attitude towards the Vedas must feel as did the man of ancient India that what was to be found in the Vedas was not written down later by any man as the expression of divine wisdom. Therefore the Vedas, especially the Rig Veda, are not only records of something holy, but are themselves sacred to those who perceive what they are. And hence arose the infinite veneration for the Vedas themselves in olden times, a reverence such as is offered to a divine being. That is the fact we must understand. And we must gain this understanding by contemplating the souls of the old Indian people. There are many things to be learned because we are advancing towards an ideal; the ideal of the first period of civilisation at a higher stage, and of its reestablishment. We must learn to understand, for instance, what is said of Bharavadscha, that he studied the Vedas for three hundred years. A man of the present day would think he possessed mighty knowledge if he had studied the Vedas for three hundred years; he would think he knew a good deal even if he had studied them for a much shorter time. Yet it is related that one day the God Indra came to Bharavadscha and said to him: ‘Thou hast now studied the Vedas for three hundred years; see, there are three very high mountains yonder. The first one represents the first part of the Vedas, the Rig-Veda; the second one represents the second part of the Vedas, the Sama-Veda; and the third one represents the third part of the Vedas, the Jagur-Yeda. Thou hast studied these three parts of the Vedas for three hundred years.’ Then Indra took three small lumps of earth out of these mounts, Just so much as could be held in the hand, and said: ‘Look at these lumps of earth; thy knowledge of the Vedas is as these lumps in proportion to yonder towering mountains.’ If what is here said be transposed into a feeling, it is this: that if, in approaching the highest wisdom (whether it be in this or any other form, even in the form in which we find it today when we are called by the Rosicrucian method to seek for it not in books but by observation of what is to be found in the world) we can apply this story, we are taking the right attitude. Hardly anyone can say that he has heard as much about spiritual knowledge as had Bharavadscha about the Vedas; but everyone can make this comparison between himself and Bharavadscha, and he will then have put himself in the right relationship as far as his feelings are concerned, with the all-embracing wisdom of the world. And he will be aware of something infinite of which we can only possess a small fraction. In this way, too, we get the right kind of yearning to go forward and to have patience until another little fraction of wisdom is added. Much may be learned from the ancient wisdom of the East; but among the most valuable things which can be learnt from the Light of the East are those which are connected with our feelings and our perceptions, and something of this can be learned in what the God Indra gave to Bharavadscha by way of instruction as to the right attitude to assume towards the Vedas. Feelings of holy awe and reverence such as were felt in those ancient days must again be acquired by us, if we would advance to an epoch wherein we may once more, through the disclosures made in the newer mysteries, penetrate into that veil of wisdom which is woven of divine and not of human thoughts. These feelings are the very highest we can acquire. But we must not think that we already possess them, we must clearly realise that knowledge alone leads up to these highest feelings. And if we avoid thinking, if we take life too easily and decline to seek the feelings that are to be found on the ethereal heights of thought, we shall experience only ordinary trivial feelings and mistake them for what is obtained by the soul when it steeps itself in contemplation of divinity. Feelings such as were to be found among the old Indians were the essential means of approach to all the wisdom of the first post-Atlantean epoch, and to the ability to assume a right attitude towards the world in that age as well as to perceive that unity which is to be found in the spiritual worlds, whether upon the outward or the inward path. But in each successive civilisation something new must come to light.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"8. The Nature of the Luciferic Influence in History","site_heading":null,"date":"1909-08-30","location":null,"word_count":889,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/113/1909-08-30/p015","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"RSPC1940","book_title":"The East in the Light of the West","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA113/English/RSPC1940/19090830p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/113/1909-08-30/p015"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/113/1909-08-30/p015","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1909-08-30","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 113/1909-08-30/p014","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/113/1909-08-30/p014"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":867,"en_words":889,"ratio":1.03,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 113/1909-08-30/p014","passage_number":14,"text":"Diese Dinge müssen uns klar sein, wenn wir die Weltenentwickelung wirklich verstehen wollen. Daher müssen wir empfinden, daß es ein natürliches Gefühl ist, wenn der Christ sagt: «Ich schätze das Johannes-Evangelium über alles», wenn der Christ aber auch das Bedürfnis hat, nicht bei dem Worte dieses Evangeliums stehenzubleiben, sondern durchzudringen, wie es die Geist-Erkenntnis tut, zu dem spirituellen Gehalt dieses Johannes-Evangeliums, wenn er sagt: «Mir wird es erst dadurch, was es sein soll, daß ich durchdringe zu demjenigen, was da im äußeren Ausdrucke gegeben ist.» Derjenige aber, der sich in der richtigen Weise zu den Veden stellen will, der muß sich wie der alte Inder dazu stellen, das heißt er muß sagen: «Dasjenige, was in den Veden selbst steht, hat kein Mensch hinterher bloß nachgeschrieben als Ausdruck der göttlichen Weisheit, sondern das ist unmittelbar eine Nachbildung dessen, was eingeatmete Weisheit ist.» Daher ist das Vedawort, daher sind die Teile der Veden, namentlich der Rig-Veda, nicht nur Urkunden über Heiliges, sondern selbst ein Heiliges für diejenigen, die empfanden, wie der Zusammenhang ist. Und dadurch die unendliche Verehrung des Veda selber wie eines göttlichen Wesens in alten Zeiten. Das müssen wir nur verstehen. Und wir müssen es verstehen aus der Seele des alten Inders heraus. Und wir müssen mancherlei lernen, weil wir ja einem Ideale entgegengehen, dem Ideale, die erste Kulturepoche in Erhöhung wiederzufinden, das heißt wieder zu begründen. Wir müssen etwas von dem lernen, was zum Beispiel gesagt wird in bezug auf das Vedawort, daß Baravadscha durch drei Jahrhunderte hindurch den Veda studiert hat. Der heutige Mensch wird glauben, wenn er drei Jahrhunderte den Veda studierte, daß er ungeheuer vieles wüßte; er wird verhältnismäßig schon, wenn er viel kürzere Zeit ihn studiert hat, glauben, daß er vieles weiß. Da kam, so wird uns erzählt, eines Tages zu Baravadscha der Gott Indra und sagte zu ihm: «Du hast jetzt durch drei Jahrhunderte den Veda studiert; siehe einmal, drei hohe Berge sind da, mächtig hohe Berge! Der eine bedeutet den ersten Teil des Veda, den Rig-Veda, der zweite Berg bedeutet den zweiten Teil des Veda, den Sama-Veda, und der dritte Berg bedeutet den dritten Teil des Veda, den Yagur-Veda. Du hast sie studiert, diese drei Vedenteile, durch drei Jahrhunderte.» Dann nahm der Indra drei kleine Klumpen von Erde, gerade so viel als man in einer Hand halten kann, aus diesen Bergen heraus und sagte: «Sieh dir diese Klumpen an! Soviel weißt du jetzt von den Veden, wie sich diese Klumpen verhalten zu den großen, mächtigen Bergen.» Verwandeln Sie einmal dies, was da ausgesprochen wurde, in ein Gefühl, dann heißt es: treten Sie an die höchste Weisheit heran, sei es in dieser oder jener Form, auch in der Form, wie sie uns heute entgegentritt, wo wir berufen sind, nicht aus Büchern, sondern aus dem, was in der Welt steht, durch die Botschaft des Rosenkreuzes wiederum die Weisheit zu suchen, und wenden Sie das an auf dasjenige, was uns als Geistes-Erkenntnis gegeben wird, und fühlen Sie so und stellen Sie sich in der richtigen Weise dazu, so werden Sie kaum sagen können von sich, daß Sie soviel von Geist-Erkenntnis gehört haben wie Baravadscha damals von den Veden; aber es sollte sich dieses Gleichnis von Baravadscha ein jeder gesagt sein lassen, dann wird er gefühlsmäßig in das richtige Verhältnis sich setzen zur umfassenden Weisheit der Welt. Und von solcher Art wird dieses Gefühl sein, daß ein Unendliches empfunden wird, von dem wir immer nur einen kleinen Klumpen haben können. Dadurch bekommen wir auch die richtige Sehnsucht, in der richtigen Weise vorzuschreiten und Geduld zu haben, bis sich wieder ein kleines Klümpchen anserzt. Die Ahnung gehört zu den allerwohltätigsten Gefühlen der Menschenseele. Vieles kann gelernt werden aus der uralten Weisheit des Orients; zu dem Wertvollsten, was gelernt werden kann aus diesem Lichte, gehören solche Dinge, die sich auf unser Gefühl und unsere Empfindung beziehen; und das ist etwas von demjenigen, was der Gott Indra dem Baravadscha als eine Art von Anleitung gab, sich in der richtigen Weise zu den Veden zu stellen. Solche Gefühle von heiliger Scheu, von Ehrfurcht müssen wir uns wieder erringen, wenn wir entgegengehen wollen einem Zeitraume, wo wir hineinschauen dürfen in das, was die Verkündigung der neueren Mysterien ist, wo wir wiederum hineinschauen in jenen Weisheitsteppich, der aus den göttlichen Gedanken gewoben ist und nicht aus den Menschengedanken. Das ist auch das allerbeste, was wir an Gefühlen lernen. Aber wir wollen nicht glauben, . daß wir diese Gefühle im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein schon haben, sondern wir müssen uns klar sein, daß zu den höchsten Gefühlen der Weg eben durch das Wissen geht. Und wenn man den Gedanken umgehen will, wenn man zu bequem ist, so durch die Atherhöhe der Gedanken die Gefühle zu suchen, so wird man bei den gewöhnlichen trivialen Gefühlen bleiben und sie nur verwechseln mit dem, was innere Versenkung der Seele in die Göttlichkeit ist. Solche Gefühle, wie sie im alten Indien zu finden waren, gehörten als ein Grundzug der ganzen Weisheit im ersten nachatlantischen Zeitraume dazu, um in der richtigen Weise sich damals zur Welt zu stellen und eine Einheit zu empfinden in den geistigen Welten, die man findet, wenn man den Weg nach auswärts oder einwärts sucht. Bei allen folgenden Kulturen muß sich ein anderes zeigen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":867,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/113/1909-08-30/p014"}],"english":["GA 113/1909-08-30/p015"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":867,"en_words":889,"ratio":1.03,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.01,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8854,"original_word_count":8751,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"RSPC1940","book_title":"The East in the Light of the West","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA113/English/RSPC1940/19090830p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. 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