There are far-reaching implications to this split between the Greek and Vedic traditions. When the Greek philosophers identified reason, a uniquely human faculty, as the link to divinity, this meant that other living creatures, lacking reason, missed out on divinity. This dichotomy between humans and the rest of the natural world went on to become a central theme of Western thought. In the Vedic tradition, by contrast, reason was merely a tool in the service of true divinity. This permitted the rest of the natural world also to partake in divinity, whether or not they possessed the faculty of
...more
West
