Karl Marx “turned Hegel on his head” by replacing idealism with materialism, meaning he took Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s method of change and applied it to real economic and social conditions instead of abstract ideas.
In the Afterword to the second German edition of Capital (Volume 1), Marx described his relationship to Hegel: “With him it is standing on its head. It must be turned right side up again, if you would discover the rational kernel within the mystical shell.”
What I propose to do is to turn my beloved guru Ramana Maharshi’s advice on its head.
The Maharshi advised, “The life of action need not be renounced. If you meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.”
Now, one of the main things that still attracts me in life is Western Philosophy.
So, I am going to invert the above advice of Maharshi on its head by doing the following: “I will not renounce meditation. I will read Western Philosophy for an hour or two every day, and then carry on with my meditation.”
