I have written this short account of Indian Thought and its Development
in the hope that it may help people in Europe to become better
acquainted than they are at present with the ideas it stands for and the
great personalities in whom these ideas are embodied. To gain an insight
into Indian thought, and to analyse it and discuss our differences, must
necessarily make European thought clearer and richer. If we really want
to understand the thought of India we must get clear about the problems
it has to face and how it deals with them. What we have to do is to set
forth and explain the process of development it has passed through from
the time of the Vedic hymns down to the present day. I am fully
conscious of the difficulty of describing definite lines of development
in a philosophy which possesses in so remarkable a degree the will and
the ability not to perceive contrasts as such, and allows ideas of
heterogeneous character to subsist side by side and even brings them
into connection with each other. But I believe that we, the people of
the West, shall only rightly comprehend what Indian thought really is
and what is its significance for the thought of all mankind, if we
succeed in gaining an insight into its processes.
