Radhakrishan Receives Degree From H.S.I.U. ,October 13, 1965
``On the occasion of Your Excellency's visit to Our country it gives Us special
pleasure to receive you at this institution itself dedicated to the pursuit of
knowledge and truth. It is altogether fitting that Your Excellency should be the
focus of this occasion, for Your Excellency has yourself since your youth been
dedicated to that cause. Your marked achievement to the august rank of Professor
at the youthful age of twenty-eight, your consistent endeavour to pursue
knowledge and the numerous books that have flowed from your pen, to this bear
witness.
Today more than ever before man realizes the bond of unity that exists within
the race; he is endeavouring to employ the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of
the ages. He is employing modern science and technology; he is reaping the
benefits, however limited, of political and economic unity; and to that extent,
he is transcending the age-old barriers that have divided the race so long and
is endeavouring to reflect on the welfare not only of himself and his immediate
neighbour but also on the welfare of all the human race. This endeavour is in
harmony with the spirit of the mystics of ages gone by "...in the mystic
traditions of the different religions we have a remarkable unity of the spirit.
Whatever religions they may profess they are spiritual kinsmen. While the
different religions in their historical forms bind us to limited groups and
militate against the development of loyalty to the world community, the mystics
have always stood for the fellowship of humanity," so Your Excellency has taught
us. And in an effort to carry out this teaching to pursue truth - to promote
those bonds common to the human race - Your Excellency has dedicated your whole
life. To free the human race from superstition and fear that originate from
ignorance; to enable him to transcend the apparent obstacles of race and
religion; and to help him recognize the blood-ties of the whole human race, Your
Excellency has laboured. To this generation, so tormented between modern
knowledge and ancient faith, your scrupulous studies have pointed the way by
which man may be saved from traditional superstition and modern scepticism.
Were the thoughts of Plato and Socrates, the beliefs of Christianity and Judaism
not harmonized with Hindu philosophy; were Yoga and its various stages not
exposed to Western thought; had Western religion and philosophy not been exposed
to the philosophy and religion of the East through Your Excellency's persistent
endeavour, how much the poorer would human thought have been!
In the history of the human race, those periods which later appeared as great
have been the periods when the men and the women belonging to them had
transcended the differences that divided them and had recognized in their
membership in the human race a common bond. Your Excellency's constant endeavour
to challenge this generation to transcend its differences. to recognize its
common bond and to work towards a common goal has doubtless made this age
pregnant with greatness. It is, therefore, in recognition of these labours that
We, with unequalled pleasure, bestow upon Your Excellency the degree of Doctor
of Letters, honoris causa.``