Here Comes Indian Wisdom

SIR S. RADHAKRISHNAN 1888-1975]
--Indian Wisdom Personified

“While words of learned length and thundering sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew.”
--Oliver Goldsmith
So said the famous English poet Oliver Goldsmith in his poem “The Deserted Village” while describing the School Master. Students of English literature are apt to remember these lines when they go through the life of Sir S. Radhakrishnan, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. No wonder when he was walking on the streets of Oxford in England in 1936as a Professor there, British intellectuals used to comment
‘Here comes Indian Wisdom’.

This great trailblazer in the field of Indian Philosophy had a humble beginning in the village of Sarvapalli in Tiruttani, a small town on the Andhra-Tamil Nadu border. He was born as the second son of Sarvapalli Veerasami and Seethamma in a Telugu speaking household on 5th September 1888 [That is why 5th September every year is celebrated as Teacher’s Day]. The Sarvapalli family was known for its scholarship in the Vedas and other religious Hindu scriptures. The family was held in high esteem by the entire village.
Veerasami worked in a Tahasildar’s office with meagre earnings. With the addition of three more sons and a daughter to the family, it was almost a hand to mouth existence. But this in no way dampened the religious and spiritual fervour of the parents. Radhakrishnan had his primary education at Tiruttani and for the secondary education he joined a Missionary school in Tirupati

Radhakrishnan had a maternal uncle by name Narasimham who took up Sanyasa later in life under the name ‘Swami Pranavananda’. He was one of the earliest disciples of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. According to him, Radhakrishnan was rather dull as a child which upset his father. Narasimham, the maternal uncle of the boy, volunteered to take the boy to Vellore and take care of his education there. On reaching Vellore, Narasimham initiated his nephew in the ‘Sri Rama Taraka Mantram’. Constant repetition of the potent Mantra resulted in the blossoming of Radhakrishnan’s inherent intellect and he grew into a brilliant student. He joined the Voorhees College at Vellore and passed his Intermediate examination in 1903. While he was still a student, he got married at the age of 15. By taking care of Radhakrishnan during the formative period of his life and by helping him through his academic career, Narasimham laid the foundation of Radhakrishnan’s success in later life. Later, he joined the Madras Christian College for his M.A where he came across eminent Professors of Philosophy who influenced his life very much. It was during this period that he read extensively the works of well-known philosophers like Plato, Kant, Hegel etc and also Vedantic works like the Vedas, Upanishads, Acharya Shankara’s several works, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature etc. At the age of 20, as a part of his M.A.Course he wrote a dissertation on “The Ethics of Vedanta”. He completed his M.A. in 1909.

After M.A., Radhakrishnan took up teaching in a few colleges before he joined the Mysore University in 1918 as Professor of Philosophy. The Mysore University had started in 1916 and the then Maharaja of Mysore, Nalvadi Sri Krishna raja Wodeyar and his able Dewan Sir M.Visveshwaraya were instrumental in scouting for talents all over the country and get their services to the newly established University. In the meanwhile, the University of Calcutta had started functioning and it was headed by India’s greatest educationist of the 20th Century, Sir Asutosh Mukherji, who had a record tenure of having been the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University for 5 successive times. He conveyed to Radhakrishnan sometime in 1921 that he should accept the Chair of King George V Professorship of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Calcutta University. Radhakrishnan got selected for the post. Most people were surprised by the choice. Many thought that Radhakrishnan, a man from the South and barely 30 years old was not a good choice to succeed Brijendra Nath Seal, who was considered the doyen of Indian philosophers. Radhakrishnan was also hesitant since he considered himself too young and inexperienced but some of his close friends and well-wishers prevailed over him to accept the post.

The news of Radhakrishnan’s resignation spread like wild fire all over Mysore and Bangalore and the entire academic community in the State was shocked. Recalling the last day of his father’s stay in Mysore, his son Prof .S. Gopal writes:
“He had declined all formal functions to bid him farewell. But the students converted the occasion of his departure to such a function which has now become a part of the History of Mysore University. The horses of the horse-drawn carriage by which he was to go to the railway station were detached. Students in harness pulled the carriage all through to the railway station. There the platform was wreathed with Mysore Mallige and rose garlands. The compartment was filled with roses. Almost the whole faculty and students of the University turned up at the station to bid him a farewell. The traffic on all roads was held up foe a few hours. The crowd inside the platform was such that many found it difficult to get through. As the train pulled out hours late, my father, like many others, was moved to tears”

Adorning the King George V Chair at Calcutta helped Radhakrishnan to get both national and international recognition. This was probably the most productive part of his intellectual life. It was during this period that he wrote his well-known book
“Indian Philosophy” which was published by the famous London Publishers, George Allen and Unwin. The impact of the book was tremendous with the result that the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica requested him to give a write-up on “Indian Philosophy” for their 14th Edition. Till the 13th Edition, the Encyclopedia did not have any entry under the head ‘Indian Philosophy’. Along with Sir J.C.Bose, Radhakrishnan attended the World Conference of Universities in the British Empire in London in 1926. The same year he attended the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard. Wherever he went, he made a positive impact on the audience. In all these lectures abroad, he proved to the predominantly Western and Christian audience that Hinduism is not a rigid sect or doctrine but it was a way of life which was universally applicable.

His brilliant lectures in the West resulted in his receiving an invitation to take up the post of Principal in a Manchester College, Oxford in 1930. During his stay there, he delivered the prestigious Hibbert Lectures in the Manchester University and also in the London University. Bertrand Russell who had attended his lectures in London met him and told him that he had never heard philosophy better expounded than in those lectures. It was as a result of these lectures that the Oxford University decided to found a chair at Oxford for ‘Eastern Religions and Ethics’. The chair was established in 1936 and was offered to Radhakrishnan. In the meanwhile he had been knighted by the British Government in 1931 when Lord Irwin was the Viceroy of India. He returned to India in July 1939 after his assignment at Oxford.

Soon after his return, Radhakrishnan joined the Benares Hindu University as its Vice-Chancellor at the specific request of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Founder and the then Vice-Chancellor of the University. He served there till 1945 and again went to Oxford University in 1945. After India got independence in 1947, Radhakrishnan was sent to Soviet Union as India’s Ambassador in 1949. Subsequently, he became Vice-President of the country and finally adorned the post of The President of India in 1962.

He passed away on 17th April 1975.


B.M.N. Murthy


ARTICLE NO. 466---SIR S. Radhakrishnan
Created: Friday, October 3, 2008 9:28 PM