As
we all know, culture is the backbone of any nation. India has to identify and
nourish a culture of its own not alien to its soil. By blindly following the
western concepts of secularism and democracy, India has neglected its cultural character,
which is based on the wisdom-tradition of its rishis and sages. In some western
democracies, the Church may not have any direct role in governance, but they continue
to swear by the gospel and stand behind Christianity, while allowing religious
freedom to others, who do not believe in Christianity. However, in India, the
State shies away from identifying with its ancient spiritual and cultural
identity. It is not just because of a hollow interpretation of secularism and
democracy. There are internal contradictions in Hinduism itself that prevent
the Indian state to identify with Hinduism.
The
cultural and spiritual identity of Bharat is not Judaic, Christian or Islamic, but
Hinduism, as long as India remains a Hindu majority country - forget that India
is the ancient-most civilization which gave birth to Hinduism and followed it for
ages and ages. Sadly, the Hindus have been denied of their legitimate right to
proclaim and uphold the unique cultural and religious identity of their mother
land by the Nehruvian politicians left behind by the colonialists. The prevailing
anti-Hindu political ideologies such as Marxism, Communism and pseudo Secularism
are only the bye-products of this political misdirection. The colonialists and
their agents have succeeded to mangle Hindus in such a way that the Hindus mock
their own religion and culture. The Hindus have to be rescued from this cultural
hara-kiri and spiritual stupor. This is the biggest civilizational challenge
India faces today.
While
some of the oldest civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, Rome and others
have withered away, the Indian civilization has survived for long adapting
itself to the changing times. It shows the great strength and vision of the
rishis and sages, on whose philosophy the Indian culture is based. Their
worldview is founded on universal spiritual verities. Realizing the divine nature
of life, they taught that Atma (one’s self or consciousness) can evolve to divine
status through various incarnations. Truth is universal, therefore, the rishis
never promoted an exclusive theory of religion. There cannot be a Hindu God,
then a Christian or Islamic God. They conceived God as Pragyanam Brahm (Eternal
Consciousness) or Sat-Chit-Ananda (Truth, Consciousness and Bliss),
which transcends all dualities, name and form.
Attracted
by the beauty of Indian thought and culture and the richness of the land, great
travelers like Megasthenese, Fa Hien, Huen Tsang and others visited India. In a
letter Huen Tsang wrote to a Buddhist monk in Magadha in 654 AD, Huen Tsang mentions
that he carried a horse-load of scriptures to China for the study of Indian
culture, philosophy and religion. Thousands
of students came to study in the ancient universities of Nalanda and
Takshashila and carried the teachings of Indian sages on varied subjects such
as metallurgy, textiles, medicine, surgery, mathematics, aviation, and of
course, philosophy and spirituality to their countries. Thus Indian culture and
philosophy had influenced the world from the very ancient times. Francois
Voltaire rightly mentioned that ‘everything has come down to us from the banks
of the Ganges…’
However,
the pertinent question is why India has lost its olden glory. Here lies the
need to examine what had gone wrong with the nation’s culture and spiritual
heritage. There is a need to reinterpret and reinvigorate India’s ancient
heritage. From the spiritual practices of Dwapara and Treta Yuga, Hindus have
to evolve into the spiritual vision of Kali Yuga, the concluding era in a
chaturyuga cycle (consisting of satya, treta, dwapara and kali yuga). Kaliyuga
is the period of great spiritual churning. In Kaliyuga, the spiritual practices
followed in Treta and Dwapara yuga become redundant and ineffective. Kali yuga is
the age of enlightenment and supramental evolution under a Guru of
transcendental realization. In Kali yuga souls get purified and perfected and
these souls are promoted to the next chaturyuga beginning with Satyayuga to become
perfect divinities, enjoying uninterrupted divine bliss. By clinging on to the
spiritual practices of bygone ages, human beings limit their spiritual
evolution. The cataclysms and attacks on Hinduism since the onset of Kali yuga about
5200 years ago after the time of Sri Krishna are related to this yuga-parivartan
or aeonic change, which the Hindus are yet to be aware of. The main difficulty
before Hindus in accepting the wisdom-tradition seems to be their difficulty in
rallying behind a strong spiritual leadership forgetting caste, clan and
regional boundaries.
Hinduism
is attacked mainly because of two reasons: One is its polytheism, the
veneration of trimurti gods (Brahma,Vishnu and Maheshwara) and other devi-devas
instead of Brahman, the Almighty God. The learned as well as the ignorant are
trapped in the puranic version of Hinduism that places gods and goddesses at
the altar of veneration. Besides its weak rational foundation, this type of
worship fragments the masses spiritually and socially. The votaries of this
system, mainly the orthodox Brahmins justify the tradition and would not
tolerate any attempts at its reformation as they are the only ones to lose by
way of profession and social privileges. Thus the Buddha, Mahavira, the Sikh
Gurus, Swami Dayananda Saraswati and others had to leave Hinduism and many millions
converted. This is not to suggest that all Brahmins are against the reformation
of Hinduism. On the contrary, some of the greatest reformers of Hinduism have
been the Brahmins themselves.
The
worship of devi-devas was popularized through the puranas, which are part of
mythology written down for mass consumption of various sects in Hinduism. Each sect
contradicts the other while promoting their ishta-devata over the other.
For the Saivites, Siva is the Lord of creation, while for the Vaishnavites it
is Vishnu. There are yet other gods like Surya, Ganapati as well as the Devi of
Sakteyas who claim the role of creation. This spiritual fragmentation has led
to inimical social groupings in a subtle way often leading to suicidal enmity
and clashes, wherein the downfall of one group is desired by the other. The
Hindus who work for the triumph of Hinduism should realize that this spiritual
fragmentation stands in the way of Hindu unity, which is a precondition for
making India a truly Hindu nation.
The
Hindu philosophy (Sanatana Dharma) is not based on the mythology in the
puranas. Its base can be said as the Upanishads, the jnana portion of the Vedas
and the philosophical sciences such as Sankhya, Vedanta, Yoga, Nyaya etc. all
of which speak about God in terms of Atman, Purusha or Brahman, the Absolute God
Principle, which is contradictory to the creation theories in the puranas. The
puranas portray Brahma, Vishnu, Maheswara or Devi as the authorities of
creation. In the same puranas as well as in the Vedas and Upanishads, it can be
seen that the gods themselves were secondary creations of Brahman. Even the god
Brahma has to meet with his end, say the puranas. Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara
were the spiritual authorities of previous yuga-cycles. The puranic myths glorify
the history pertaining to a remote past, which cannot be relived now. Moreover,
the spiritual incumbency of trimurty ends with the onset of Kaliyuga. It is
said that even the gods and angels are eager to be born In Kali yuga, especially
in Bharata Varsha for working out their liberation through the great preceptors
who would be born in this age. In Kaliyuga human beings are able to perform the
feats what gods had performed in earlier ages. Man has much evolved than the
gods. Like the great god Siva did with his third eye, today man can destroy the
whole earth with the press of a button. He can go to different planets using
vehicles equivalent to the ones used by devas. Therefore, the worship of devas
in Kali yuga would not yield any special boons to the worshippers because human
beings in Kaliyuga are endowed with greater spiritual prowess. Those who
worship still lower spiritual entities such as ghosts, goblins and other evil
powers are sure to lose their human character and beauty.
This
is not to deny the existence of devas nor their exalted spiritual status. Devas
are splendorous spiritual entities inhabiting the heavenly plane (swarga). They
are the embodiment of ashta aishwaryas, the eightfold riches and
fortunes. By worshipping them and by living a life of dharma, one can no doubt
attain heavenly pleasures here and hereafter. But there is one problem. They
can enjoy this paradise only until the exhaustion of their punya. Once the
punya is exhausted this person is expelled from the heavens to be born again,
one does not know in what wombs (ksheene punye marthya lokam visanthi, ref
Bhagavat Gita). Sri Sankara refers this vicious circle as ‘punarapi
jananam, punarapi maranam, punarapi janani jattare sayanam, iha samsare bahu
dustarre….. (there is the chain of births and deaths; man is born in the
mother’s womb again and again; this worldly existence is very difficult to
transcend). Only after transcending the celestial plane of devas and angels,
one can experience the real joy of spiritual realization, declare the rishis. However,
no mahatmas or prophets in this Kali yuga could transcend the most perilous and
treacherous plane of the celestials including those prophets who negate the
devi-deva tradition. That is another story which resembles the star-wars.
The
Upanishads say: ‘the face of Truth is hidden by a golden vessel’. The golden
vessel compared here is the splendorous world of the gods and angels, the seventh
heaven. Kali yuga is the age to transcend this plane, which is the yuga dharma
or the requirement of this age. According to the philosophy of Hinduism, the Supreme
Truth is above the heavenly plane; therefore it becomes difficult to accept the
authority of gods as the ultimate way of spiritual redemption. The strife
between the inner sects in Hinduism as well as other religions has arisen
because it promotes the worship of gods and angels, which limits man’s
spiritual potential to the notion of heaven, which also happens to be the
ultimate goal of Christianity and Islam. Christianity and Islam have a
half-baked theory of creation. Since they do not entertain the idea of
transmigration of souls, they do not accept the truth of spiritual evolution through
the guidance of different preceptors, who incarnate from time to time in the
long cycles of yugas. Hindus can never accept the view that only through the
teachings of Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed the human race can be redeemed.
In fact, no other religions have caused and continue to cause so much violence
and bloodshed than Islam and Christianity because of the bigoted view of
religion.
Fortunately,
Hindus are the descendents of the great rishis who spoke about a universal
religion, the Sanatana Dharma, whose principles are extolled as the highest peak
of mystical experience. However, the Hindus have never come to terms with such a
lofty religion of the rishis because of the corruption occurred over the ages. It
is time the Hindus sit down and introspect in order to meet the challenges before
their ancient-most religion, which happens to be the most peaceful and
contemplative life science with a universal applicability.
Second
is the caste gradation of Hindus, which divides them into socially fragmented groups.
Religion unites people, but Hinduism created fissures among its adherents by
the caste classification. We can find that the original inhabitants of India
never instituted any caste system. It began with the ancient Vedic priests
(yagnikas), who considered themselves as racially superior. They devised caste
system in order to protect their racial purity and to exercise control over the
people, whom they brought under subjugation. It is one of the earliest
instances of colonialism in per-historic times, similar to the conquests of native
populations by white Europeans in the continents of America, Africa and other
places. Although, some Indians try to prove that Aryans were not different from
the native Indians, all evidence suggests that it was a racially conscious group,
which injected this poison into the Indian society. One may make any number of
arguments for and against the Aryan invasion theory, but the truth is apparent
and cannot be erased from the canvas of Indian history.
The
otherwise lofty teachings in the scriptures are marred by the deification of a
particular caste, the Brahmins. Again, instead of questioning its irrational
foundation, some Hindus are eager to prove that caste system is good. No
government would be able to promote the study of Hindu scriptures in schools
and colleges despite its great treasure house of knowledge; it is because of the
unequal and objectionable caste hierarchy in them. In almost all the
scriptures, the Brahmin is eulogized to the level of a god, and the sudra is condemned without any privileges in the society. This hidden apartheid in
the body of Hindu scriptures prevents it being accepted universally. It is naive to believe that the scriptures available now are the original work of
Vyasa and other rishis. These scriptures have been manipulated and interpolated
during subsequent redactions by the Brahmin editors. What one can do to make
the Hindu scriptures universally acceptable is to remove the caste references in it.
The word ‘brahmana’ in the scriptures should be replaced by ‘sage’, ‘brahma jnani’,
‘sadhu,’ ‘sanyasi’, ‘guru’ etc. The real meaning intended in the scriptures by
the word ‘brahmana’ is brahma Jnani or a sage, who are realized souls. But, in
the subsequent editions over the ages the pundits have deliberately used the
words ‘brahmin’, ‘dwija’ etc. which has a definite caste connotation. Moreover,
many stories have been incorporated in the puranas and epics that speak of
cruel punishment for violation of caste laws. An example is the story of the
killing of Shambhuka, a sudra sanyasi by Sri Ram. This is a concocted story incorporated
in the Ramayana for legitimizing caste laws. Sri Ram, the supreme Guru of Treta
Yuga was beyond all caste discrimination. In Ramayana, he is seen venerating
Sabari, a sudra woman ascetic.
All
sensible Hindus should think whether these types of stories and caste gradation
would foster Hindu unity, leave alone the question of attracting other people
to Hinduism. Conversion of other people to Hinduism is not possible because of
the caste gradation. A few westerners who embrace Hinduism do not follow the
traditional Hinduism; they follow only the path of jnana or yoga under the
guru-sishya tradition, which is the real core of Sanatana Dharma. Brahmanical
Hinduism remains like a parasite on the tree of Sanatana Dharma. India can
regain its olden glory only by uniting its people spiritually and socially, for
which there should be an internal discussion among the Hindu leadership
regarding the true foundation of Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) and its principles.
Traditionally,
Hindus believe that the Vedas are the only authority in the matters of
Hinduism. However, Vedas are bound to Yuga Dharma, i.e. they are age-specific.
The sages in every age receive the revealed 'word' from Brahman, which is a catalog of spiritual principles and duties to be followed in a particular yuga.
With the change of yuga, the sages again receive the Veda or the ‘Word’ from
Brahman regarding the spiritual duties. This was how in Treta Yuga Sri Ram was worshiped and in Dwapara Yuga Sri Krishna was worshiped as the spiritual
authorities of those ages relegating the Vedic gods (Indra, Varuna, Vayu, Agni, etc.)
to the background. Their words and deeds were the moral code for the people. Spiritual truths were conveyed by them. The teachings of Sri Ram and Sri Krishna are available
even now in the form of Jnana Vasishtam (Vasishta Ramayan) and Bhagavat Gita
(also Udhava Gita, the last word of Sri Krishna to Uddhava ) respectively. Therefore,
what the divinely commissioned sages reveal in this Kali yuga are the Vedas or
the dharma shastra to be followed now.
In
every age, a Trikala Jnani Guru takes birth in Bharat Varsha, the sacred land
of rishis. They would appear by divine design and would lead us
forward at the appropriate time, if and when we are ripe enough to receive
their message. Navajyotisri Karunakara Guru was one such sage who tried to sensitize
the people about the rich wisdom-tradition. The spiritual flowering
of humanity has to take place through newer spiritual masters. We have to open
our heart and heed their words of wisdom. We have to share the burden of
improving the life of downtrodden and uphold the dignity and importance of
women as well as sensitize them spiritually. This can be possible only by
liberating the people from retarding cultural practices and exploitation in the
name of religion. In order to infuse new life into the culture of the nation, it
is very essential that the society be guided by the wisdom of a sage or Trikala
Jnani Guru. Whenever the people of India absorbed the wisdom of its sages, it
had risen to great heights and whenever it failed to do so, it fell into the
depth of great moral and physical decadence. The present spiritual decadence of
India is related to this spiritual perplexity.
The
real enemies of Hinduism are internal. The new generation of children is not
going to accept any irrational beliefs and practices. Already, the majority of
Hindus remain Hindus for the namesake, having lost all sense of their religion.
We should not be complacent and wait to see the complete alienation of our
children from their cultural and spiritual moorings. It is difficult for Hindus
to forget the temple tradition and caste gradation. However, they would be
doing great injustice to the sages and rishis if they do not spiritually
upgrade themselves by respecting the concept of yuga-parivartan or yuga-dharma by
following the Jnana path through the medium of a transcendental Guru Parampara.
When the Hindus are thus able to respect and rally behind a blameless spiritual
leadership, they would have advanced one step forward in transforming India into
a mighty Hindu nation. The followers of all other religions, including the
Christians and Muslims ought to respect the Yuga dharma, which is the key to
the door of a universal religion.
Mukundan P.R.
