I was invited to deliver lectures in the 'Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad Honorarium Lecture Series conducted under the auspices of the Baroda University and I could deliver these lectures for this I must first of all express my heartfelt gratefulness to the organizers of that lecture-series and particularly to the learned lady Srimati Hansa Mehta, who was then the vice-chancellor of the Baroda University. Had these gentlemen not invited me to deliver lectures in this honorific series, then an occasion to write out these lectures in the form in which they have been actually written would have hardly arisen during my life-time. The topics discussed in these lectures were of course lying latent in my mind in the form of scattered impressions, but the task of expressing them in a well systematized form demands both concentration and labour. The fact that the Baroda University provided me an occasion to undertake this task constitutes a festival of joy for my life this is what I feel.
Had I so desired I could write these lectures in the national language Hindi and had they been available in Hindi they would have received a very wide circle of readership. But despite all this I preferred my mother-tongue Gujarati, and one and the chief reason for that is that I have been a supporter of not only ordinary education but even higher and highest education in different subjects being imparted through the medium of one's mother-tongue, hence it was obligatory for me to discuss my own subject in my mother-tongue. In the course of fulfilling this obligation I had a realization of the special power inherent in the Gujarati language better than ever before, Certainly, if a devoted student makes an authentic attempt to discuss his own subject in his mother tongue then he can do particular justice to this subject and besides developing the structure of his mother-tongue can make manifest its internal strength. Particularly significant literature thus composed in different provincial languages does ultimately go to enhance the capacity of the national language and introduce rare augmentation in its mass of literature.
If even though expressed in Gujarati these ideas possess something like weight of their own then entering the arena of the national language they will after all shed lustre on it; on the other hand, if they possess no such permanent weight then even though expressed in the national language in the first count itself they will lie rotting in one corner. Since I view matters thus I have in a way subjected myself to the hard test of a touchstone; now to examine my performance is the task of those possessing expertise in the field concerned.
When one is out to write something then the question arises whether the writing should follow a popular style or a scholarly style. The ever-growing expansion of education, the ever-growing number of readers, and the ever-growing propagation of literature-all these factors incline one to write following a popular style. However, I have adopted the opposite course. For this one reason of course was that the series under whose auspices 1 was to deliver lectures does not belong to an ordinary category. But another reason that was also before me was that if one is to form a correct idea as to the different question pertaining to philosophy and as to the particular traditions arisen in connection with them, then the aim cannot be achieved in case one remains confined to the very upper-surface of consideration. Thus if one makes no attempt to penetrate into their depth the philosophical topics would ultimately look like something lacking sophistication and sheer humdrum. On the other hand, if one on one's own makes an attempt to penetrate down into those topics as deep as possible the scope for acquiring a genuine knowledge as regards them will become wider day by day. And when such topics keep assuming depth a language and a terminology appropriate to them gradually become ever more well established and are also established anew. Such an accumulated material in due course proves to be of much value while undertaking a popular exposition of the subject concerned.
The subtle and subtler discussion pertaining to so many subjects that have place in the scriptural languages like Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit-it is on account of them that the literature composed in these languages has been able to attain eminence and last long. Certainly, those writing on different subjects in the western languages like English etc. do not write everything whatsoever merely with a view to keeping it within popular reach. Had they too adopted this course alone the eminence that is today attributed to the western languages and to the literature composed in them would have not been available to them. As a result of this and similar considerations I have discarded in the present lecture-series the easy pathway of writing in a popular style.
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