A View of Santhigiri Ashram

A View of Santhigiri Ashram
Lotus Parnasala and Sahakarana Mandiram , Santhigiri Ashram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Thursday, March 5, 2015

A New Spiritual Initiative

A Global Vision

 
Navajyotisri Karunakara Guru, the Founder of Santhigiri Ashram at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala in South India, envisions a global spiritual renaissance, going beyond the barriers of religion, class, caste, race and gender differences. Santhigiri Ashram also conducts research in holistic health sciences integrating universal spiritual values and a contemplative life style. Daily, thousands visit the abode of the great Master to have a glimpse of the Parnasala, the lotus shaped mausoleum of the Guru, which is acclaimed as the most magnificent of its kind. The Ashram is home to a large number of householders, who live as a voluntary community with the Ashram as the nucleus.  People from different regions irrespective of caste, class, gender and religious differences live together engaged in a variety of enterprises and services such as healthcare, farming, weaving, education, spiritual guidance, etc. cherishing the vision of a global family. Guru’s vision was to enable all people reach the Absolute Truth of God.
 
Spirituality beyond Religion
 
 
Spirituality transcends life, death, beliefs, customs, cultures etc. The awakened soul discovers prakriti or nature and the various dimensions in the physical nature where existence continues after death. With such realization, the jnanis (sages) of yore discovered and expounded the meaning of life in its full depth. There is a soul, a software that is coming and going in life and death. This software is an accumulation of the karmagati, i.e. the karmic propensity of the soul from countless births and deaths. The sense about the soul, its existence in the various dimensions, the inherent, unalterable laws by which it earns good and bad and evolves are the Soul Knowledge. In the present age (kali yuga) man has the possibilities of full awakening.  For this he needs the guidance of the Guru in his life. This alone helps not religious rituals and theories. Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru has discovered this reality and has expounded a way of life suited to this age, based on His realization and teaching. The contrast between spirituality and religion is clearly distinguished. While religious traditions present human beings as separate identities, the spiritual view brings out the universality in us.
 
The Age Specific Spiritual Guidance
 
 
The Manu tradition of Indian spirituality has provided humanity a time scale of Yugas (cosmic seasons). The basis of this Manu calendar is the Divine Will that governs the movement of nature and cosmos. The great gurus in each epoch who received the knowledge of this cosmic design relevant to that yuga led people in dharma, karma and worship of God, which defines Yuga Dharma. Spirituality ultimately relates to this spiritual administration or Yuga Dharma. The plethora of religious complexities today springs from a lack of relation with this cosmic design.  It was revealed to the disciples of Navajyotisree Karunakara Guru that it was a great spiritual error that led to a deviation in Yuga Dharma. Despite the sacrifice of great souls humanity could not be guided to the path of Truth. Thereafter, it was revealed that the restoration of Yuga Dharma is the mission of Guru, by correcting the wrong courses of human life and their ill effects consequent upon that deviation. In the dharma of Kali Yuga, everything must be oriented to the Supreme. The Guru must be Parabrahma Guru (the Supreme Divinely Commissioned Guru). The mantra, initiation, prayer, meditation and all else must be in relation to the Supreme. In the scriptures, the Jnana portion (knowledge portion) becomes relevant. Only darshanam (visions), asareeri (clairvoyance) emanating from the Supreme must be accepted.
 
Revelatory Visions
 
 
In the long duration of a Manu age, partitioned by time zones such as Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali, a spiritual authority manifests age after age for the spiritual evolution of human race. Such a spiritual authority imparts to humanity the dharma to be followed in each age. But in course of time this path of knowledge (Jnana Margam) was lost, which had negative repercussions on the material and spiritual planes. This lost path has been rediscovered by Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru. Guru has not only restored this process of knowledge but also perfected it and gifted it to humanity for its true progress. While correcting spiritual visions of the disciples, Guru taught them at the experiential level that the sources of visions differ. Visions may originate from powers residing in various astral planes, such as – bhootas (demonic spirits), pitrus (ancestral souls), devi-devas (deities), rishis or sanyasis etc. The ultimate vision or the ultimate plane of knowledge is Parabrahmam (The Supreme Light). So a Guru who has attained the Supreme Parabrahmam alone should be relied as the source of Darshanam.  Knowledge of the entire creation, dharma, karma, mistakes and their correction etc. are received through such visions. Science, technology, astral knowledge, disease and medicines, even awareness of the past, present and future can be known in this manner. Our life must be lived with such knowledge and under the guidance of such a Guru. Such a Guru tradition is ordained to be the path of the Kali Age.
 
Spiritual Rehabilitation 
 
 
One of the basic tenets of Sanatana Dharma has been that the future course of an individual’s life depends on the cumulative effects of the residual vices and virtues in one’s jeeva or soul. Unless the inherited impurities or bad effects of misdeeds in past births are removed from one’s jeeva or genetic order, the future life will be influenced and guided by those negative instincts. It means a genetic cleansing is essential for getting more evolved progeny. Though different means have been devised and prescribed by religions and spiritual doctrines, no proper solution has been found to remove impurities and cleanse the evil effects in one’s jeeva and thus make possible a noble human life. After His spiritual completion, Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru became the divinely commissioned Guru to perform the cleansing or rehabilitation of the manes (ancestral souls), deities, etc. This cleansing ensures the birth of children free from the bad effects of past lives. This is an astral task of spiritual intercession performed by the spiritually designated disciple following Guru’s instruction and has no parallel that we know of. In Santhigiri Guru Parampara child birth is planned after this spiritual purification known as Gurupooja. Guru envisions the emergence of a new human race and a world order through such wisdom-filled children.

A New Spiritual Initiative

In the year 1926, Sri Aravinda Maharshi, the great Indian sage had seen in a vision the descent of the Supramental Light to the earth accompanied by Sri Krishna. Navajyotisree Karunakara Guru was born on 1 September 1927 at Chandrioor in Alleppy district of Kerala, after ten months of this vision. Guru experienced the radiant presence of Sri Krishna in Him until the age of nine. This experience had remained a mystery to the Guru for long.  He had an intense desire to lead a monastic life. In His search for an Ashram, Guru found out the Advaita Ashram of Sri Narayana Guru at Aluva, in Kerala. He was just thirteen years old then. The next seventeen years, He lived in the Sivagiri Mutt and its branch ashrams. Guru was trying to find a spiritual guide to clarify His doubts about the childhood spiritual experiences and lead Him further. For long He could not find a right spiritual guide. 
 
While He was living at the branch of Sivagiri Mutt at Aruvipuram in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, Guru decided to observe a spiritual vow for forty one days atop the Koditooki hills nearby.  On the forty first day of this spiritual observance, the Saibaba of Sirdi appeared before Him in vision. The Guru took it as a good omen. Within a day or two after this, a well-wisher arrived at Aruvipuram and guided Guru to a Sufi saint by the name Qureshia Fakir, who was popularly known as Pattani Swami. The Fakir lived in the vicinity of Beema Masjid, near Thiruvananthapuram.  Pattani Swami initiated Guru into mystical experiences and clarified His doubts. After years of struggle, self-sacrifices and spiritual wanderings, Guru established Santhigiri Ashram at Pothencode, near Thiruvananthapuram, in the year 1965. On the day of Guru’s spiritual fulfilment, a word was received from the Divine Light: What I wished for ages has been fulfilled now, signifying the re-establishment of the lost jnana path related to the spiritual order of Manvantara. Navajyotisree Karunakara Guru left the earthly plane on 6th May, 1999 inaugurating a new spiritual era. It was revealed that this day is to be celebrated as Nava Oli Jyotir Dinam - Sarvamangala Sudinam, i.e. the All-Auspicious Day of the New Light.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The History of Original Sin and the Manu Cycles



Gurucharanam Saranam


The history of the ‘original sin’ and the Manu cycles is a very important topic because it has the potential to unite us spiritually. The history of Manu or Adam is shrouded in mystery. The Bible writers mention about the story of Adam and Ave and the sin they committed against the will of God. It is presented as a myth, which is both conceptually vague and lacking in historical details. The Adam myth relates to a long forgotten spiritual error in the history of human race, which is little different from the one mentioned in the Bible. First of all, Bible creates the impression that Adam and Eve were the first human beings who lived in the garden of God (it is not clear whether it was on the earth or in the heaven) and that their sexual union after eating the forbidden apple had caused their fall.

The Biblical myth related to Adam in the Genesis and his lineage up to Noah appears in one of the Hindu Puranas (Bhavishya Purana, 4th Ch.). It has been mentioned here that Adaman and Haimavati (equivalent to Adam and Eve) were living in their heavenly abode. Adaman ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of sin and they were expelled from the heavens. The names of Adaman’s successors have close resemblance to the Biblical names, Adam for Adaman, Seth for Shwethanama, Enoch for Anoohan, Kenan for Keenashan, Mahallalel for Mahallalan, Methuselah for Manochillan, Lamech for Lomakan and Noah for Newhan.

However, I shall present a different version of the original sin and the spiritual status of Adam according to the original vision of Indian rishis (sages). The word Adam was derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Adi’ (the First or Origin) says Blavatsky, the Russian mystic, who was one of the founders of the Theosophical Society in her book The Secret Doctrine: ‘Even the name of the first man (Adam) in the Mosaic Bible had its origin in India… the words ‘Ad’ and ‘Adi’ mean in Sanskrit ‘the First’, in Armenian, ‘One’ (Ad-ad, the Only One); in Assyrian, ‘Father’, whence Ak-Ad or ‘Father Creator’. And once the statement is found correct it becomes rather difficult to confine Adam to the Mosaic Bible alone and to see therein simply a Jewish name’. (The Secret Doctrine, Adam Adami, Page 44).

The equivalent name for Adam and Eve in Indian spirituality is Manu and Satarupa. Manu is not an earthly creation. He is the First Born of God or the First Cosmic Person, the Father in Heaven.  A solar system is born out of the conception of Manu. Because of this, the rishis calculated the age of the universe in terms of Manvantara, after the name of Manu. Fourteen such Manus or Adams appear in a single episode of creation called ‘Kalpa’ which is time-space continuum formed by billions of years (4,320,000,000 years). The time of one Manu cycle is equal to 306,720,000 years consisting of 71 age-quartets or chaturyugas. One chaturyuga consists of four cosmic ages (Yugas), viz. Satya (golden age), Treta, Dwapara and Kali. We are living in the Kali Yuga, the last leg of the 28th age-quartet of the seventh Manu cycle. Kali Yuga has a duration of 4,32,000 years and it has begun only 5200 years ago after the time of Sri Krishna.

The first ray of life originated in the waters of the earth billions of years ago out of the copulation of cosmic rays from the sun and moon in rhythm with the planetary movements in the solar system and in alignment with twenty seven stars and twelve constellations (zodiacs). Life evolved and evolved and it became man, in the perfect image of God. The spiritual evolution of man happens through a brotherhood of Mahatmas or Preceptors, who appear at the turn of every age (as well as within the duration of a long age), according to the spiritual requirement of every age. This is the spiritual administration of God known as Sanatana Dharma, meaning the ‘Eternal Religion’.  I mentioned all this mind-blowing details as a preamble to explain when and how the original sin occurred.

Everything went on in accordance with the Will of God. Then a great preceptor in the Manu lineage committed an error by equating himself to God. His name was Satyatrana. In his spiritual ecstasy and supreme God realization, he uttered:  ‘I am God’. It went against the Will of God and he fell from the grace of God. An individual evolute may realize God but cannot equate himself to God. The mistake had egoistic origin. The above said error happened in the 3rd chaturyuga of the present Manu cycle. As a consequence, a curse came from God: ‘May the memory of Manu be erased from the human race’. Thus, the awareness about Manu, the Adam of human race was lost. A long age of darkness followed. Then, in the 7th chaturyuga, God initiated a correction through three spiritual entities – Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. Thereafter, the system of worshiping gods and goddesses in different names and manners originated all over the world – in India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, etc.

The very error, which happened to Satyatrana gets repeated with the gods too as gods began to be equated with the Supreme. A preceptor in this tradition charts the cosmic time order of Manus as subservient to Brahma, the god of creation in Hinduism. Gods were erroneously equated with the supreme God through mythological treatises (puranas). The Will of God is violated…  Interpolations take place in the scriptures. The way of spiritual guidance through the sages in the Manu lineage is ignored. A system of worship based on the propitiation of gods and goddesses gains strength in which priests became the spiritual authority.

The spiritual order of Manu was distorted. Great avatars like Krishna and Buddha and various other sages appeared to rectify this error. When their efforts failed, God sends messengers and prophets such as Moses, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed and others in other parts of the world. It has been revealed that 2444 Gurus have taken birth in India and in different parts of the world for this purpose since the beginning of this Kali age. The story does not end there. The prophets and messengers of God are persecuted by powerful super-evil spirits scuttling the mission of these messengers. The Will of God remains unfulfilled and humanity suffers again without true spiritual guidance. Then all great souls pray for a divine intervention. Several sages predict the imminent birth of a Divine Soul in the 20th century.

September 1st, 1927 – a Divine Soul is born in Kerala, known as Gods Own Country. His name is Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru. God initiates a long awaited correction through Him. In the year 1973, revelations were made to the Guru from the Supreme Light about the aforesaid history of the original sin occurred in the spiritual order of Manu. These revelations are never available in any scriptures. It is a new beginning, a new spiritual dawn.

Mukundan P.R.

Monday, January 12, 2015

What is God's System of Spiritual Administration



There is a homogenous, scientific and unitive spiritual law that governs man’s life. Spirituality is the effort to know that universal spiritual law. This spiritual law or spiritual knowhow cannot be known only by reading scriptures, repeating some prayers or rituals and the like. It can be known only through a Guru, a person who knows the spiritual secret, who has the experience of truth. Since God is in the nature of Light and Consciousness, only through the medium of a human, God can communicate with human beings. Therefore, God has commissioned a brotherhood of spiritual masters or mahatmas, who come under the governance of Manu. Who is this Manu? Manu is the architect of our solar system, the first human archetype or the Adam of human race. It is through the medium of Manu, a cycle of human life is initiated in the solar system or solar family. Manu is the spiritual head of a solar family guiding the spiritual evolution of humanity. Nobody can bypass this spiritual system.

There are fourteen such Manu cycles or Manvantaras, one after the other, in a single episode of creation known as kalpa. This explains the probable existence of many other solar systems. The present age belongs to the seventh Vaivaswata Manu, whose spiritual era began approximately 120,960,000 years ago according to the system of Manvantara, the Indian cosmic calendar. The spiritual masters coming under Manu are magnificent souls who have ascended higher spiritual planes and unified with the Light of God through their effort spanning several births. They are known as Avatars. Avatar means one whose soul has ascended or transcended the stellar regions. They remain as luminescent souls in the astral world. It is said that the innumerable stars in the distant sky are such souls, whether we believe it or not. These spiritual luminaries occasionally adorn human forms and come down to the earth plane for the spiritual guidance of man.  Mankind has received spiritual wisdom only through such souls. These spiritual authorities have their own spiritual incumbency according to their spiritual merit and the commission of God. Their spiritual incumbency may be for 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 5000 years etc. according to the civilizational requirement related to man’s spiritual evolution. 

So it is wrong to say that one particular guru or prophet is the last messenger of God. There would be many such Godly incarnations even now and in future too for the spiritual evolution and spiritual guidance of man in every age. There is a calculation to the number of mahatmas who would come in this way. This spiritual system is known as Sanatana Dharma (means Eternal Religion) in Indian spirituality. In this system, all spiritual authorities that have come in the world have their own place in the historical march of humanity, but not limiting to them. That is why Indian spirituality is tolerant to other faiths and other spiritual masters too. Only such a cosmology can be the basis of a unitive religion that would take the human race to ultimate peace and harmony. This lost spiritual awareness has been restored to us in this era of spiritual churning through a great spiritual Master, Navajyotisri Karunakara Guru. 

Mukundan P.R.
 

Sunday, January 11, 2015

How God Created This World?




Although we might have disagreements on the idea of a God with attribute, some basic facts are common, which can take us forward to a unitive idea of God.  For example, let us examine the idea of Adam and Eve. The Bible has not been able to explain the myth of Adam and Eve in depth and therefore, rational minds cannot digest it and reject them as mere myths. The idea of God manifesting as a human archetype is much older than Bible as it comes from earlier civilizations. This idea is related to a cosmic system, which any person can perceive in the nature around us. Our family is an atomized version of this cosmic truth. What makes a family? A family is made up of a man and woman. From the union of husband and wife a third comes into being, the child.  This new life is born through the sweat of man and woman in the waters of the womb. 

The sages mention that a similar concept lies behind the creation of solar system. Our solar system is another family unit. In it, sun is the intelligence principle and the moon mind. The sun is the father and the moon mother. The earth is the child from their union because it is the sweat of the sun and moon in the form of sun rays and moon rays that sustains life on earth. In a macro level, these examples show the possible way how life is produced and sustained in the world. The same principle works in a micro level or astral level.  Echoing this cosmic truth of creation, the ancient Indian seers revealed thus in the Upanishads: 

‘God Himself took the form of an egg. He remained in it for a year and divided it into two. The lower part is the earth and the upper part was the sky. In the middle of it, God in the form of a Divine Person existed with thousand feet and thousand hands. This Divine Person brooded. Then from His forehead a ball of sweat fell down. That sweat became the waters and pervaded everywhere. In those waters, there arose a golden sphere, in the form of an egg. From that egg, the four faced Primal Father - the First Born of God was born. He then divided himself into a man and woman. All created beings have their origin from them...’ 

The name of that Divine Person in Indian spirituality is known as Manu, the human archetype, after whose name the cosmic time is calculated in terms of Manvantara, the age of a Manu. This Manu or Adam is not an earthly entity. It is an astral entity or spiritual authority governing our solar system. Life on earth began in a scientific way in line with the theory of evolution. A scientific view of creation is provided by the ancient Indian sages in the Sankhya philosophy as well as in the Vedas and Upanishads much before the birth of modern science by way of revelations or mystical experiences. The same creation myth is found adapted in many other ancient civilizations with minor differences. We cannot entirely negate all this as mere myth because it is the inherited spiritual wisdom of humanity. God has not created the world through a magic wand. He has adopted a perfectly scientific method to create and evolve life, which science would prove in the near future. God has not hidden any truth from Him. It is man who is ignorant.

 Mukundan P.R.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The Despairs As Well As Hope before Hindus




In the Rig Veda we find this verse: ‘We are surrounded by dasyus from all sides. They do not perform yagna; they are non-believers. Their observances are different. O’ Slayer of enemies! Kill them, destroy their tribes’. The history of religious intolerance is quite old and unpleasant. Holding a flashlight on this stagnated pool is only to lift up one to a refreshing perspective. The conflicts between devas and asuras in the scriptures are interpreted as the history of conflicts between Dravidians and Aryans. Prior to the Aryan cycle, the Dravidian race dominated. From the accounts in the epics and puranas and other ancient texts, it can be known that the Dravidians were an advanced civilization. Many among them like Bali, Ravana and Mayan were titans of that age possessing superhuman skills. Their technological prowess and architectural skills were superb. They had airplanes and mystical weapons, which could be either a much advanced version or a prototype of today’s nuclear weapons. They had built magnificent palaces and cities. As ages went by, the Dravidian civilization decayed. Great geological changes occurred. There was the great Flood. The Kumari continent (Lemuria) of the Dravidians had gone underneath the deeps. The ice age had set in. Then a new race emerged from the snowy cool mountains and terrains - the white Aryans, may be 10000 - 15000 years ago. They began to conquer the moribund Dravidian civilization – the asuras, daityas, rakshashas, nagas, vanaras and other aboriginal races which inhabited the earth from previous age cycles.

It seems that the Dravidians chiefly worshiped Siva. It has been established from the excavations at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa that the worship of Siva existed even before the emergence of Aryans. Some historians say that the Aryan, Greek, Roman and Celtic religions developed from the ancient Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia. The Sumers built their cities and towns dedicated to the worship of gods and goddesses like sun, moon, vayu, water, etc. But, who inhabited Sumeria? It must be a branch of ancient Dravidians, who were spread throughout West Asia in ancient times. According to researchers, the old Sumerian texts mention that people arrived from south by sea and occupied the land. Sumerian seals were one among the artifacts recovered from Indus valley, which establishes the early contact between the two civilizations. 

The Aryan worship was notable for its fire worship and sacrifices aimed to appease various nature deities like Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varnua, etc. Nevertheless, the Vedic seers perceived Truth as an organic whole. God was perceived as a Cosmic Archetypal Person (Purusha) from whose sankalpam emerged the universe including the sun, earth, moon and other planets and all sentient and insentient beings. Although the Rig Veda assigns the creation to Purusha, the Vedic community gave importance to the worship of guardian deities. In the Vedic religion the spiritual authority was vested with a community of priests or purohits, who called themselves as brahmanas. They considered themselves as superior claiming their origin from the face of the Cosmic Purusha. The status of kshatriyas, vaisyas and sudras dwindled according to the limbs from which they originated from the Purusha, such as from his arms kshatriyas, from navel the vaisyas and from the legs sudras although such a theory of genesis is viewed as a clear misinterpretation of Purusha Sukta. The brahmanas who now grouped themselves as purohits became specialized in complex fire rituals, which they conducted for the rulers who wanted to ward off threats from natural forces as well as expiation of sins for their misdeeds. The Vedic priests conducted rituals for the ruling class and the elite who generously gifted cows, land, grains, gold etc. and granted them special privileges. The sudra had no spiritual or social privileges under the Vedic dispensation.  

II

According to few historians, a group among the Aryans decided to migrate to Iran protesting against the corruption of Vedic priests and established the religion of Zarathustra (the Parsi religion). In the Zarathustra religion the devas were treated as unholy spirits. In India too, some wise men were unhappy with the greedy Vaidikas and their pompous rituals and sacrifices. These wise men withdrew to forests and mountain caves and began to meditate on the mystery of life. They received visions of truth and shared their knowledge to the keen disciples who approached them. Their teaching came to be known as Upanishads, which means ‘learn sitting near the master’. They propagated the wisdom path. It is from the Upanishad rishis the ashram and guru-sishya tradition originated. The Upanishad seers saw God as pure Consciousness beyond name and form. However, these rishis lived a secluded life away from worldly pursuits, which they took as mind’s unprofitable diversion. Therefore, their profound and egalitarian ideology could not be developed into a religious culture among the masses. So, they continued to live trapped in the decadent religious practices. 

Efforts were on to liberate the people from this pathetic condition and spiritual downfall from the time of Sri Krishna itself. Krishna taught humanity the first lessons of religious tolerance and tried to harmonize worldly life with transcendental wisdom.  He initiated the concept of an undivided and eternal Supreme Entity which rules over the universe and whose light guides all sentient and insentient beings remaining in their innermost self. One can find the basic principles of a perfect spiritual science in the teachings of Sri Krishna in Bhagavat Gita. Through the famous verse in Bhagavat Gita ‘yadhaa yadhaa hi dharmasya glaanirbhavati bhaarata, abhyuthanam adharmasya tadaatmaanam srijaamyham’, Sri Krishna was presenting an alternative spiritual path, i.e. the system of an (epochal) spiritual mediator, an avatar or Guru medium, who will lift up humanity whenever dharma is in peril. Krishna said:  ‘Surrender your heart completely to me; love and worship me; bow only before me abandoning all other paths. Then you can see me, this is my promise. I am the one who love you the most; you submit all dharma to me. Find refuge in me and do not fear because I will save you from all sins and slavery’.

Through this exhortation, Sri Krishna was trying to liberate the society from the domination of Vaidikas and Vedic ritualism. According to some thinkers the Mahabharata war was a war between Sri Krishna and the spokesperson of Vedic Dharma, Dhronacharya. Such a pernicious and colossal war in which almost all kshatriyas of the land were perished was not fought just for resolving a family feud. It could have been as well a rebellious war against the hegemony and injustices of a priestly social order, which supported a corrupt regime. When Krishna passed away from the scene with the end of Dwapara yuga, the Vedic religion re-established its supremacy. Krishna’s life and teachings were misinterpreted to suit the tradition. The profundity of Krishna’s teachings was lost in the fanciful tales of the poets who portrayed Krishna as Makkan Chor or Radhe Krishna, who flirted with gopikas. 

Then the Sage Kapila came with Sankhyan philosophy. The Vedic religion had become unpopular with the masses. The philosophy of Sage Kapila freed the concept of God and Creation from the ritualistic framework of Vedic religion. Sankhyan philosophy can be said as a refinement of the philosophical discourse of Upanishadic Rishis and their jnana path. Buddhism and Jainism were influenced by the Sankhyan philosophy. People suffering from an oppressive religious and social order wanted a Savior. Buddha was that Savior. Buddha’s religion was egalitarian and based on right action, human love and compassion. There was no place in it for meaningless rituals and caste discrimination. The whole of India and many other nations in Asia accepted the ideology of Buddha. 

III

The period of Buddhism between 600 B.C– 800 AD was the golden period of Indian history. Chandragupta Maurya, Asoka, Vikramaditya, Harsha and Kanishka were the great emperors of this age. It was during this period several other great souls like Patanjali, Sree Sankaracharya, Kautilya, Aryabhatta, Charvaka, Susrutha, Kalidasa, Amarasimha, Vararuchi, Bhairavi, Varahamihira, Dandin, Banabhatta, Subandhu, Bhathruhari, Bhavabhuti and others lived spreading the glory of India around the world. The great growth of Buddhism was intolerable to the Vaidikas although the Buddhist Sangha constituted a large number of Brahmins. Buddhism and Jainism which came as protest movements against the Vedic religion were depicted as Atheists and their followers were ridiculed and persecuted. It was another chapter of religious intolerance. Buddhism was soon split into two sects - Hinayana and Mahayana, incorporating the very practices which the Buddha abhorred such as the veneration of deities, animal sacrifice and inclusion of mantric and tantric rituals into the Buddhist canon. Soon Buddhism weakened and migrated outside its land of origin.

During the Gupta period, the Vedic religion regained its upper hand. The Indian society under Vedic religion was highly segmented on the basis of caste. Each caste, tribe or guild had different gods (kula devata), mostly lesser and unholy spirits compared to the beautiful gods of higher castes. This crippled the spiritual and social solidarity of Hindu masses. Eventually, the Gupta dynasty declined and foreign intruders began to mount attacks on India. The local rulers who were in mutual enmity went to the extent of seeking assistance from these foreign intruders in order to defeat their enemies in the neighborhood. India had fully degenerated socially and politically after the decline of Buddhism. It was at this moment in history Islam made it entry into India. The kings of India bent their knees in front of the ferocious sultans. Thousands and thousands were massacred and all wealth looted. Thousands were forcibly converted. Those who refused were put to the sword. Their womenfolk were raped. Some jumped into fire. Many thousands were taken as slaves to die in the enemy lands. Hindu temples and Buddhist viharas were razed to the ground. The holiest of holy temples of Hindus at Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi were demolished and masjids built in their place. The world famous Buddhist library at Nalanda was burnt to ashes. Islam inflicted horrendous pain not only on Hindus but also on Christians and Jews. Islam was born out of a historical frustration in the area of spirituality. Despite the efforts of many earlier messengers like Sri Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir and prophets like Moses and Jesus Christ, people had not yet accepted the true path and relapsed again and again to the faith in many messiahs, gods and demigods. Some among the early persecuted Christians believed that the ferocious power of Islam was the curse of God on them for deviating from the true faith. 

Buddhism and Jainism were basically protest movements against the Vedic religion, against its caste segregation and priest-craft. However, Buddhism and Jainism had never posed a threat to India’s fundamental culture and unity. Even when there were differences, the undercurrents of culture remained the same. Buddism and Jainism never ‘de-nationalized’ the people of India, as a well known westerner put it. The Indian religions never displayed religious hatred or bigotry as seen today in a manner that would tear away the very unity of the country and its cultural foundation. India was always known for its religious tolerance compared to other nations. The Indian society was not politically segmented on the lines of race, class, caste and tribe as it is seen today. However, changes took place in the fabric of Indian society after India was colonized by the British. Although during the rule of the Muslim Sultanate and Mogul kings, a lot of Hindus were forcibly or otherwise converted to Islam, it had not affected the pan Indian Hindu identity and culture. It was difficult to convert the majority Hindus, who were spread across the length and width of the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. With the end of Mogul rule the advance of Islam came to an end. During the British period also serious efforts were made for the conversion of Hindus. However, Hinduism outlived all these attacks while the Islamic conquests and European colonialism had uprooted the native cultures and beliefs in the continents of America, Europe, Africa and other places. They forced their religion on the conquered people and thus Christianity and Islam became the biggest religions in the world.

It was in South East Asia Islam and Christianity failed because Hinduism and Buddhism strongly resisted the efforts of global religious conversion. At the time of independence, the Hindu population in India was more than 85%.  Nevertheless, the thousand year long Islamic and British rule had greatly affected the Hindu society politically and socially. Several social evils and superstitions in Hindu society were demolished. The reform movements began by Ram Mohan Roy, Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekanada, Aravind Ghosh, Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar, Sri Narayana Guru and others helped. There was a constitution which ensured social justice to the deprived classes in order to prevent the hegemony of a Brahmanical social order. Concepts such as freedom of religion and secularism were included in the Constitution. When the hold of religion was separated from the political system after independence, the Hindu religion was not accepted as the state religion, although the Hindus were in majority.  At the same time, two theocratic states came into existence dividing India - Pakistan and Bangladesh. This caused big distress to the majority of Hindus. The efforts of the British succeeded to restrain Hindu religion politically and socially. In one way, the partition of India was unavoidable, because both the British and Indian leaders had realized that it was impossible to restrain and make the Muslims live under a democratic set up among the majority Hindus. Whenever and wherever Muslims form the majority, they would opt for a theocratic society under Islamic laws. This is inbuilt in the Islamic theology.

IV

Behind the British occupation of India, there were not only political and economic aims; one of their main objectives was to convert the people of India into Christianity. The British saw the Indians and their religion as primitive. They strongly believed that only through Christianity the Indian souls could be saved. Several missionaries from Europe arrived in India for this purpose.  The British administration extended all assistance to them. However, they soon realized that it was almost impossible to convert the Hindus. This fact has been mentioned in the book ‘Letter on the State of Christianity in India in which the Conversion of the Hindus is Considered Impractical’, written R. Abe Dubois, a missionary in India during the British period. The British administration and the missionaries who arrived in India changed their tactics when they understood that it was not easy to convert the Hindus. First, they began to study about the religion, philosophy and culture of India. They were surprised to find the history of a very ancient and profound culture. They thought that a people who was so much degenerated and colonized could not be the heirs to this great culture and philosophy. They picked up the theme of conflicts between deva and asura in the Puranas and described it as the racial conflicts between Aryan and Dravidian population. It was William Jones, Max Muller and other Indologists who propagated this concept first. Sri Rajiv Malhotra has done a detailed study of this subject in his book ‘Breaking India’.

The Indians who were living for centuries in unity and brotherhood suddenly became Dravidians and Aryans, hill tribes, dalits, etc. They defined Indian society as a conglomeration of isolated groups which had no common bonds. Through this they aimed to divide Indian society on the basis of race, caste, language and region and held Hinduism responsible for all these evils. The missionaries thought that they could convert more and more Hindus into Christianity by exploiting and aggravating this situation. The Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu is a big example for this. During the British period, Christian missionaries in India like Bishop Robert Caldwell and others provided ideological fire for this movement. They spread the idea that the Aryans, after coming to India, destroyed Dravidians, their religion and culture and therefore Aryans were the enemies of Dravidians. The books and articles written by these missionaries and their preaching raised a cloud of racial hatred. Thus the Hindu religion, language and culture were seen as the enemies of Dravidians. In 1916 an organization was founded by the name Justice Party. It is this organization which has become the Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam (DMK) in the political scenario today. During this period there was a big tide of religious animosity in Tamil Nadu. A lot of people in Tamil Nadu converted to Christianity. Sanskrit and Hindi, the language of North Indians were opposed. The Hindu face of Tamil Nadu underwent change like that of Kerala. The Aryan-Dravidian racial conflict spread to Sri Lanka also. The European colonialists adopted the method of polarizing the people of India on the lines of caste, class, religion, race and language, which kept them alienated from the national mainstream through social and political confrontations. Thus religious intolerance is perpetuated in the form of political and social protest movements.

V

Western culture or Arab culture is incapable of leading the human race towards peace and spiritual fulfillment. Today, the influence of western materialist culture has led humanity to all types of vulgarity, family breakdown, health hazards and environmental damage. There is disillusionment and disquiet everywhere. The murderous jihadi groups are slowly digging the grave of Islam, which has grown through a history of bloodshed. Majority of its followers are blind to any other truth, therefore, are confined to their self-imposed ideological isolation. The world is in need of a new spiritual path to forge ahead, which would form the basis of the faith of future humanity. Navajoythi Sree Karunakara Guru said that only the wisdom tradition (jnana path) of the rishis provide such a unitive spiritual view, which has been developed through ages of spiritual enquiry and culture. Guru mentions that all religions, sages and prophets have their own place in the historical march of humanity. Therefore, we should not berate any religion or prophet. What we can do is to pray for a good transformation with a benign vision and largeness of heart. The slogan of mere religious harmony is not enough. The human race has to be guided to the path of one Supreme Godhead, who is not Hindu, Christian or Muslim. God rules over His entire creation equally. Although God is formless, Guru said that God has a shape. A formless God has no necessity to create a world full of forms and names. Manu Smriti provides a rational view of creation thus:

‘This universe was enveloped in darkness- unperceived, undistinguishable, undiscoverable, unknowable, as it were, entirely sunk in sleep. The irresistible Self-existent Lord, undiscovered, creating this universe with the five elements and all other things was manifested dispelling the gloom. He who is beyond the cognizance of the senses, subtle, un-discernible, eternal, who is the essence of all things and inconceivable, himself shown forth. He desiring, seeking to produce various creatures from his own body, first created the waters, and deposited in them a seed. This (seed) became a golden egg resplendent as the sun, in which he himself was born as the progenitor of all worlds. The waters are called Narah, because they are the offspring of Nara; and since they were formerly the place of his movement (ayana), he is therefore called Narayana… That Lord having continued in the egg divided it into two parts (male and female) by his mere thought. Its (the egg’s) womb, vast as the mountains of Meru, was composed of the mountains and the mighty oceans were the waters, which filled its cavity. In that egg were the continents, seas and mountains, the planets and divisions of the universe; the gods, the demons and mankind'. 

The male creation of God is the Manu of Manvantara cycles, who is not be confused with the author of Manu Smriti with the same name. The female part is known as Satarupa. The echo of this idea of a Cosmic Person is also reflected in the Semitic religions. The word Adam is said to have originated from the Sanskrit root ‘Adi’, which means the beginning. The great Rishis taught us that Guru Principle is the qualitative transformation, the creative intent of the formless Brahman. (Brahman is different from the god Brahma. Brahman denotes to Almighty God). The Tantra texts mention that God exists in the form of Guru (Primal Guru, the Cosmic Purusha) in the middle of a thousand-petalled lotus. The solar system is created by the sankalpam of this Cosmic Preceptor, known as Manu. Thus Manu is the authority of a solar system. 

The Indian sages calculated the age of universe in terms of Manvantara after the name of Manu. We should remember that the words ‘manushya’, ‘manava’, ‘manuja’ and even the English word ‘man’ is derived from the root Manu. There is an interpretation that the word Bharat is derived from Manu. Manur Bharata Iti Bharata, i.e. the land governed by Manu is Bharat. One wheel of creation (kalpa) is set to the time periods of fourteen such Manus. In the long duration of a Manu age partitioned by cosmic ages such as Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali, several spiritual authorities manifest age after age. It is this spiritual view of Indians which makes them tolerant to other religions, sages and prophets. Only through such a cosmology, the human race can be united and liberated from religious intolerance. Only a Guru who comes as the authority of the age within this cosmology can lead all people to a unitive spiritual path. Navajyotisri Karunakara Guru has not brought a new religion; He has only reinterpreted the Sanatana Dharma concepts in tune with the age. During this age of religious conflicts only such a unitive spiritual ideology can save us. 

Mukundan P.R.