Socrates

See also: Ten Primordial Masters

From Saints, Sufis and Yogis

Socrates (469-399BCE) is regarded as one of the founders of Western philosophy. The teachings of this Greek philosopher are known only through the accounts of his students, in particular through Plato's Dialogues.

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Socrates was an incarnation of the Primordial Master (1989-0524, and other talks) and that "every word that Socrates has said is absolute truth." (1979-0524)

At the time of Socrates people had evolved, they were a much better people so he could talk to them about something of wisdom, of honesty, of righteousness, of peace. Of so many things he talked, and he could talk because people were worthy of that. (1989-0524)

... Socrates, who came here in such a condition when people were really, absolutely ignorant, in the complete darkness of ignorance, they could not understand him, they could not understand Socrates at all and so like any other Primordial Master was treated by the people who were surrounding him. He was also very much ill-treated and nobody listened to him. But of course, as you know, he was Primordial Master and his wisdom is well-known, and he created out of him disciples, but none of them could go anywhere near his wisdom, and they started their own theories, own styles, and that’s how we find the accent from philosophy that was Socrates’ aim, gradually came into political and then into economic side. So the attention was moved from philosophy to economics today, not towards the philosophy which was established by Socrates. We can say Socrates was the one Primordial Master, after Abraham and Moses, who really made it very clear-cut understanding about spirituality. (1989-0524)

Yesterday they spoke to you about the different centers we have within ourselves. These subtle centers were discovered thousands of years back by great saints. And Socrates also has talked about the gods which reside within us. And the knowledge about it was existent long time back. (1989-0525)

Bibliography: Mark L.McPherran, The religion of Socrates (University, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996); Debra Nails, ‘Socrates’ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates ; Luis E.Navia, Socrates: a life examined (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007); Sara Ahbel-Rappe and Rachana Kamtekar, eds., A companion to Socrates (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006); C.D.C.Reeve, ed., The trials of Socrates: six classic texts (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002); Nalin Ranasinghe, The soul of Socrates (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000); C.C.W.Taylor, Socrates (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)