In the
present age, we see that the whole humanity is in disharmony owing to religious
differences. This means that the present day religious theologies and practices
have outlived their spiritual efficacy to bring about peace and spiritual
evolvement to humanity. It is for India to take up a leadership role in the
spiritual renewal of humanity. Although it may be unconvincing to many, the
reality is that India is the mother of spirituality, the inheritor of an
ancient most spiritual culture.
Mark
Twain (1835-1910) wrote that India is the "Land of religions, cradle of
human race, birthplace of human speech, grandmother of legend, great
grandmother of tradition... India had the start of the whole world in the
beginning of things. She had the first civilization; she had the first
accumulation of material wealth; she was populous with deep thinkers and subtle
intellect; she had mines, and woods, and a fruitful soul."
Henry
David Thoreau (1817-1862), the famous American Philosopher, said that ‘The
Hindoos are most serenely and thoughtfully religious than the Hebrews. They
have perhaps a purer, more independent and impersonal knowledge of God. Their
religious books describe the first inquisitive and contemplative access to God…
The calmness and gentleness with which the Hindoo philosophers approach and
discourse on forbidden themes is admirable.’
Annie
Wood Besant (1847-1933) once said about Hinduism: "After a study of some
forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so
perfect, none so scientific, none so philosophical and none so spiritual than
the great religion known by the name of Hinduism. Make no mistake, without
Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil in to which India's roots
are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out
from its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism who shall save
it? If India's own children do not cling to her faith, who shall guard
it? India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one.”
What is
the base of India’s great spiritual culture that deserves such eulogy from
these great teachers, thinkers and philosophers? They were obviously not
referring to the superstitious beliefs and practices of the vast sections of
ignorant Hindu population, about the snake charmers, about the relentless feuds
between hostile castes, clans and regional states, or about the culture of
animal and human sacrifices, bride burning etc. that attract the condemnation
of Hindus and their religion.
These
famous thinkers found inspiration from the great metaphysical teachings of the
rishis and sages of India that form the true Sanatana principles, which have
hardly anything to do with the priest mediated temple oriented Hindu religion,
often referred by scholars as Brahmanical Hinduism. Very few people, scholarly
and otherwise, including the Hindus, seem to realize a great flip-flop occurred
in understanding the true basis of Indian spirituality, which can be
categorized into two broad heads based on their ideological and ritualistic
differences, most importantly on the difference between their cosmologies.
The
first one is the ancient Rishi or Guru-Disciple Ashram tradition and the other
is the Trimurti or the Devi-Deva Temple tradition. The temple tradition thrives
on the premises of mythology found in the puranas that promote the worship of
the Trimurti gods - Brahma, Vishnu and Siva - and their vast family of gods and
goddesses, as the ultimate spiritual authorities. In the Rishi tradition, the
authority of creation is Manu, known to be the first projection of God. In the Rishi
tradition, the medium between man and God is the Preceptors or Gurus who come
in every yuga for the spiritual uplift of humanity, reveals Navajyothisree
Karunakara Guru.
As Swami
Vivekananda said, Guru is the mask worn by the formless God to come near man.
Every human universe (solar system) is born out of the sankalpam or conception of Manu, the Primordial Father of humanity
and that is why the age of the universe is calculated in terms of Manvantara
after the name of Manu. In a cosmic age known as Kalpa, fourteen Manus appear
and project the solar systems with the help of saptarshis, (the seven primal sages or the planetary spirits
controlling the solar system). The time of six Manus has already passed and the
present age belongs to the seventh Vaivaswata Manu. The sages of India have
even mentioned the names of these seven Manus who are going to appear in this
Kalpa. The spiritual cataclysm of India is that this universal cosmology based
on Manu has been altered subsequently to accommodate and project the Trimurti
gods as the authorities of creation.
The
Trimurti tradition is based on Purana Samhita, the mythological treatise known
to have been composed by Veda Vyasa (Krishna Dwaipayana) at the end of the
Dwapara Yuga. The present puranas are the subsequent redactions by his
disciples such as Romaharsha and others during the beginning of Kali Yuga.
There are evidences to suggest that the present day puranas and epics were
composed during the Buddhist or post-Buddhist period about 2500 years ago or a
little later. The puranas and epics, which contain important chronicles of the
past cosmic ages, are said to be perennial and existed in every yuga in
different forms and were orally handed down age after age. Thus, the myths and
legends about Brahma, Vishnu and Siva might be speaking to us the spiritual
history of an unimaginable distant past.
The
puranic authors have incorporated the metaphysical teachings of the rishis in
their compositions in such a way that one would be unable to distinguish
between the very divergent schools of thought in them. In reality, the
philosophy of the rishis envisioned God independent of the mythical tradition
and even the polytheism of the Vedas.
In the
Upanishadic, Sankhyan, Vedantic and Yoga philosophies, the Creation is not
attributed to the Trimurti but to Brahman, the Absolute Principle, from which
emerges the creation through the medium of Manu, the astral projection of
Brahman. The reference to Brahma, Vishnu and Siva as the authorities of
creation appeared at a later stage through the mythology in the puranas. The
Upanishadic rishis under the Manu Parampara pay obeisance only to the Supreme
Brahman, the Absolute Truth. For them the gods and demigods are only the denizens
of the vast universe like the humans. Also, the caste, class and gender
differences did not stand in the way of the sublime teachings of the
Upanishadic rishis. The transcendental knowledge and experience (jnana) is transferred to any truthful
disciple through a Guru-Disciple relationship. We can find that the backbone of
India’s spiritual culture is in the Upanishads, Bhagavat Gita, Guru Gita and
other philosophical sciences (sastras) such as Sankhya sastra, Yoga sastra,
Nyaya sastra, Vedanta etc. that speak about the Absolute Truth and Creation
differently in a metaphysical perspective. It is this path of knowledge or jnana marga of the ancient Indian rishis
that has inspired and continues to inspire great philosophers and thinkers
around the world and earns India the Guru status.
Thoreau
once said that “One sentence of the Gita, is worth the State of Massachusetts
many times over… In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and
cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavat Gita, since whose composition years of
the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its
literature seem puny and trivial….”
Arthur
Schopenhauer (1788-1860), the German philosopher and writer, was one of the
greatest philosophers of the 19th century. Sigmund Freud adopted a large part
of his psychological theory from the writings of Schopenhauer. Nietzsche
and Wittgenstein are counted among his disciples. Schopenhauer spoke about the
Upanishads in the following words:
"From every
sentence (of the Upanishads) deep, original and sublime thoughts arise, and the
whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit....In the whole world
there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads.
They are destined sooner or later to become the faith of the people’.
Similarly
several other Western thinkers and philosophers have been inspired by the
spiritual lore of India. Emerson (1803-1882) paid homage to Indian spirituality
thus: "It is sublime as night and a
breathless ocean. It contains every religious sentiment, all the grand ethics
which visit in turn each noble poetic mind....” In 1859 he wrote: "When
India was explored and the wonderful riches of Indian theological literature
found, that dispelled once and for all the dream about Christianity being the
sole revelation."
Wilhelm
Humboldt (1767- 1835), Prussian minister of education, said about the Bhagavad Gita
that it was "The most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song
existing in any known tongue ....perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the
world has to show."
Such a
glorious spiritual tradition was lost to India when the jnana path was shadowed by the ritualistic devi-deva tradition,
which promotes the veneration of sectarian gods and demigods as well as other
innumerable natural and supernatural forces including animals, birds and trees
as the manifestation of the Supreme Being. Many obnoxious customs and
superstitious beliefs such as human and animal sacrifices, sati and devadasi
tradition, description of caste Brahmin as equal to god (brahmana devo bhava) and practices such as the performance of
miracles (siddhi) and exorcism
through mantric and tantric rituals also came to be identified with Hinduism.
V. Venkatachalla Iyer once remarked about the
spiritual malignancy of India through the interpolated puranic literature:
“Some of the major Puranas appear to
have been re-written with the set purpose of promoting ignorance and
superstition; of enslaving the minds of the people; of preventing them from
thinking for themselves; and of giving currency to a religion which, while
pretending in theory to maintain within
itself the principles of emancipation, is calculated in practice to sink one
deeper and deeper in the quagmire…’ (V.
Venkatachalla Iyer, The Puranas, QJMS 13, 1922-23).
Late
Professor Theodore Goldstücker held similar views on the Puranas:
“When by
priest craft and ignorance, a nation has lost itself so far as to look upon
writings like these as divinely inspired, there is but one conclusion to be
drawn; it has arrived at the turning point of its destinies. Hinduism stands at
this point, and we anxiously pause to see which way it will direct its steps.
For several centuries, it is true, its position has seemed stationery; but the
power of present circumstances, social and political is such that it can no
longer continue so…All barriers to religious imposition having broken down since
the modern Puranas were received by the masses as the source of their faith,
sects have sprung up, which not merely endanger religion, but society itself,
tenets have been propounded which are an insult to the human mind; practices
have been introduced which must fill every true Hindu with confusion and
shame.. There is no necessity for examining them in detail. It requires no
evidence of the gulf which separates the present state from its past…” (Literary Remains, 2 Vols., London, Allen,
1879) Theodore believed that the real faith of the Hindus is neither
founded on the Brahmana portion of the Vedas nor on the Puranas, but on the
esoteric teachings found in the Vedas and Upanishads.
Maharshi
Devendranath Tagore said the Puranas were divisive and advised Hindus to turn
away from it toward the Upanishads, in order to unite Hindus into one religion:
“Idolatry
with all its pomp and circumstance was to be found chiefly in the tantras and
Puranas and had no place in the Vedanta. If every one were to turn from the
Tantras and Puranas to the Upanishads, if they sought to acquire the knowledge
of Brahman as taught in the Upanishads and devoted themselves to His worship,
then it would result in the utmost good of India…”(The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, Macmillan, London,
1914).
While most of the Puranas generally describe Brahma as the god of
creation, the different sects have different views about the Creator. The
Puranas according to the sects to which they belonged have tried to show their
deity, such as Vishnu, Siva or Devi as the Supreme Lord or Creator, sometimes
relegating Brahma to the background.
In Saivism, Siva is described as the Supreme. According to Lingapuranam,
‘Siva is the inner ruler of all beings. He is called Supreme for He is superior
to all. Siva, Sambhu and Sankara are different names of the great Ruler, the
Universal Soul. .. The sages know that there exists no other God than
Siva.’
In Vaishnavism one can find the description of Vishnu as the Supreme.
Vishnupuranam mentions thus: ‘May
Lord Vishnu be pleased with us, from whom matter and soul emanate, who has
created this universe consisting of moving and stationery things, and who is
the prime cause of all this. Vishnu is that Brahman, from which this creation
has emanated, with which it stays identified, in which it ever remains, and in
which it eventually merges’.
In Shakteyism, the Devi is described as the Supreme. According to
Markandeya Puranam, ‘Devi has created this universe by Her power. She includes
in Herself potencies of all deities. With devotion, we bow to her, the Mother,
who is adored by the gods and the sages alike. May She work out what is good
for us!’
In Brahmavaivartta puranam one can also find the description of Ganesha
as the Supreme: ‘Sri Ganesa is the source of this creation and the subsequent
development thereof. Beyond the ken of all humanity is His form, which is
primal in existence, foremost to be worshipped, adored by all, and full of
auspicious qualities. He is both nirguna and saguna by His own sweet will…though
Lord Ganesh is eternal, yet He appears and disappears at will by dint of His
power.’
Similarly, Brahmapuranam describes that ‘Surya (Divakara) is the cause of
all beings. It is by His desire that the universe consisting of all objects
whether moving or stationery came into existence. Surya is the source of the
three worlds. He is the great deity. The cosmos springs out of Him and again
goes back to Him.’
The
blending of mythology, rituals and practices thereon clashes with the esoteric
teachings of the Upanishadic seers, who believed in the One Supreme Being,
which they defined as ‘Satyam
Jnaanamanantham Brahm – i.e., the Supreme Being is Truth, Knowledge and
Infinity. It would be evident from the puranic literature that the concept of
Swayambhuva Manu, from whom originated the creation in the beginning in
association with the saptarshis has been
altered in course of long ages giving prominence to Brahma, Vishnu, Siva
etc.
The
Trimurti worship tradition existed as an authentic path for spiritual realization
in the previous yuga cycles. However, its spiritual incumbency in the present
age is questionable going by the evolving nature of dharma according to the
yuga cycles. The Trimurti tradition promoted the cult of devi-deva worship
according to the tastes of different sects. In this process, the inner
teachings of Sanatana Dharma were lost to humanity. India needs the guidance of
an all-knowing Sage to evaluate its true spiritual path. This is important. The
Hindus can be united only under such a great Guru Parampara, which can lead
them to spiritual enlightenment as well as social unity. The life mission of
Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru was to reinvigorate this lost jnana path and after Adi Sankaracharya,
this is the time for another great spiritual renaissance of India.
Mukundan
P.R.
