Hindu Medicine c5.s2.41

c5.s2.41

Both, myth and rational thought that develops later, spring from the unfathomable depths of life. Both have their limitations and prejudices, yet each one gives an interpretation of the world consistent in itself. Contact with the myth of another civilization, and such contact alone, can liberate modern man from his captivity, at least for a few moments of illumination. The myth lays upon him the invisible net of its presuppositions, thus reminding him of the hidden core of his own nature. For only the spear that inflicted the wound is capable of healing it, as Parsifal says; he who wounded will also heal, as even the Greek myth teaches.²⁰ Or to quote the concluding words of Zimmer’s last lecture at Columbia: “Hindu myths and symbols, and other signs of wisdom from afar . . . will speak to us of the treasure which is our own. And we then must dig it up from the forgotten recesses of our own being. And at last it will end for us our troubles and permit us to erect for the benefit of all around us a temple of the living spirit.” ²¹