Known and Unknown

The Known and Unknown in Studies

JOHN GRANT

THE PERENNIAL RUMOUR that a secret path to inner knowledge

lingers in the East, if it has any truth in it at all, seems to be

connected with psychological attitudes common to the East

which in our culture can find no place. This is not to say that

such ways of thinking should not become possible for us; indeed,

were not possible to our forebears. The chief among these in

my experience is the role of the individual as an instrument

rather than as a name. Some of the most important individuals

in Eastern history are practically unknown as personalities.

What has been considered important is their message. In many

cases we do not know where they were born, where they were

buried, what they were like. We only know what they tried to do.

The same phenomenon is strong in certain spiritual schools

today. Among the Sufis, it may be the least significant-looking

person who is the teacher: even the youngest. Books and other

teaching materials which circulate, sometimes couched in the

greatest poetry of Arabic, Persian and' other languages, are

anonymous. Works of art are rarely signed. There is not a

single authentic portrait known of any of the spiritual teachers

of most of Asia before the nineteenth century European influence

and interest in personality. Then there is the interchangeability

of teacher and pupil; something unknown to our thinking. In

some dervish schools, senior members are taught certain things

and then sent to complete or improve personal and group

characteristics by acting in a lowly capacity in another school.

Such an attitude seems almost grotesque to us, who believe,

unconsciously, that a man must be distinguished in all ways if

he is accepted as of a certain standard in one. That such

techniques and attitudes may reflect an ancient knowledge forgotten

by us is perhaps borne out by the claim that ideas of a

Western kind have been known for thousands of years in Asia.

Not long ago I was talking about modern public-opinion testing

methods used in the West, and also referring to the trials of new

drugs which were made by giving some to patients and having

'control groups' who were not given anything, and also groups

who were given inert substances—placebos—to see whether

there was a psychological effect. The Sheikh of the Qalandars of

Delhi said that this system of testing the 'ripeness' of a population

for a spiritual teaching had been in use for centuries. 'We

often,' he said, 'have sent out teachers with whole ranges of

ideas which were useless, just to see which people would be

attracted to them. This not only helped us to choose promising

students, but also kept busy the people who would be useless,

since they would be occupied believing the "truths" of the

concocted cult.'

I have been privileged to see this technique in operation. In

its modern form it has given rise to some of the 'Eastern' teachings

taken to Europe and America by well-meaning but selfdeceived

foreigners who have been unwitting subjects tested by

this method.

 

DR JOHN GRANT, in addition to spending over a

quarter of a century in private studies of Babylonian

belief and tradition, has published three semi-autobiographical

books in English: Fighting Through, Lion of the Frontier

and Through the Garden of Allah.

His knowledge of Sanskrit, Hindi and Urdu have

enabled him to live in India and Pakistan, collecting

unpublished records of beliefs and practices.