OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE

AND ITS MODERN ORIENTATION–I

SRI SWAMI RANGANATHANANDA

Our Cultural Heritage

[Sri Swami Ranganathananda, Head of the Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad, delivered the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on November 3 and 4, 1986, at Bombay. With the kind permission of the All India Radio, Delhi, which broadcast it, we reproduce the first part in this number and the second part appears in the next one. - Editor]

On this continent of India a big cultural experiment was started by the ancient Vedic people. We do not know exactly about the Indus Valley people. They became unified into a single people. That is the beginning of India. A wonderful assimilation of two types of cultures–one urban, the other rural. The Aryan was rural and the Indus Valley was urban. Perhaps there may have been a little conflict in the beginning as always happens; but the greatest thing that took place was a tremendous synthesis of diverse elements and that has continued to be the great hallmark of Indian culture up to our time. If they can blend together into a great people, then another two, another three, another four can also join together. That is what has happened to our culture up to our time. Behind this great blending and synthesis was a spiritual vision, a philosophical outlook which has come to be known in later periods as unity in diversity. We do not want to destroy diversity. Diversity makes more for enrichment of a culture but we shall subject our diversity to a central thread of spiritual unity. That was the vision of the ancient sages. That vision has continued to inspire India throughout the ages including this modern period. Originally it was of a spiritual vision, the one behind the many, one thread of spiritual unity, running through all of us. Some of the most beautiful verses of the Upanishads deal with this great subject. The senses reveal to us diversity and variety. This becomes a challenge to the human mind. Is it really true? Is there unity behind this diversity? Now this is a great scientific quest. In modern physical science we ask the same question. Is this diversity, the main truth about this nature? Is there a unity behind this diversity?

In the science subjects physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, in everyone of them – we ask this question. The senses reveal diversity. Is it true? Then we penetrate into the heart of nature and discover unity behind this diversity. This is so prominently expressed in modern biology. When a man like Darwin will say there is such an amount of kinship between one species and the other and man as well as animal and plant, there is wonderful kinship between all this. And biology tries to find linkages between one phenomenon and another phenomenon and they discovered these linkages. This search for the one behind the many was a tremendous search that our ancient thinkers undertook in India. Behind our culture is a profound thinking, profound philosophy. First, science of the external world and second, science of the internal world of man. We did discover great truths in the physical sciences. In fact, according to certain Arab Muslim scholar of Spain-Moorish Spain of eleventh century AD–among the nations enumerated by that author the nations which have cultivated physical sciences he places India as the foremost. India is the greatest nation that has contributed so much to the physical sciences, he says.

Now that was our first contribution. But the search for unity, did not end up there. It entered into the human spirit. Men are different–-black colour, white colour, brown colour–various other differences are there. What is the truth about man? It is in this field India achieved tremendous breakthrough which has come down to us as the greatest wisdom of India – the greatest contribution to world thought itself. They discovered a profound unity behind diversity of human types.

In the world of religion, they discovered unity. In the world of nature, they discovered unity. In the world of man also, they discovered unity. In the world of religion, there was a tremendous discovery. And you get it in the Rigveda itself: Ekam sat, vipra bahudha vadanti –one of the outstanding utterances of our culture – “Truth is one. Sages call it by various names.” This was the great utterance which became strengthened and reinforced by subsequent teachers and thinkers until it has become one of the important cultural inheritances of the people of India. The spirit of harmony, the spirit of concord, the spirit of tolerance, as acceptance which is so characteristic of India, we owe to this first great discovery in the Rigveda, i.e., unity in religion. Second was unity in the whole of nature. Everything in this world comes from one original source. That is the great idea you find in the Upanishads. We have the first opening verse of the Rigveda dealing with the principle of fire: “Agnimele purohitam” – “Fire is a supreme reality in this world.” The whole universe is a manifestation of fire. It is not this fire that you find on the hearth. But the very principle of fire that was a tremendous generalisation–the fire in your hearth, fire in the sun and fire in your stomach digesting your food – they all belong to the same category. There is unity behind all these. These are all tremendous achievements of the human mind very early in history. Then finally turning to mind, we see all differences outside. Let us penetrate into him.

It was in this field India contributed something unique which has never been repeated anywhere else. This discovery of the one behind many, one infinite in all the beings here–like a thread that runs through all the gems in a garland. Gems are different in colour or shape, but the thread unites all of them. This discovery of the one single spiritual thread of being behind all these diversity. This is sung in very inspiring language in several Upanishads. When our great scientist Sir J. C Bose addressed the Royal Society in London demonstrating his discovery of a fundamental unity behind all matter, the living and the non-living, they looked differently but behind them he could discover a unity. That demonstrative speech received high comments from the London Times at that time. At the end of the speech he referred to this wonderful ancient heritage of ours: “When I saw these things in my scientific demonstration, then I realised the greatness of our ancient sages who discovered sitting on the banks of the Ganges this profound truth of unity in diversity, unity in variety.” And he quoted the verse from one of the Upanishads. Eko vashi sarva bhootantaratma roopam roopam pratiroopamabhuva. “Those who realised this truth, to them belongs eternal peace. One infinite reality appearing in diverse forms. Realise this truth. That is the way to gain life. That is the way to become truly immortal.” That is a wonderful passage he quoted towards the end of the lecture.

Now it is here we have the spiritual philosophical foundation of a tremendous cultural experiment which has continued to exist for these five thousand years and which has given us an immortality which has not been found anywhere else in the world. To give a firm foundation to India’s cultural experiment and that too on a continental size, that has been the greatest contribution of the Vedic sages. They have given us firm basis for our culture. In dicovering the mortal behind the immortal man they made culture itself immortal. How many challenges come to this culture a fraction of these challenges has destroyed many cultures in the world. But we could stand all this, because of the tremendous spiritual strength behind this culture. We have generally a statement made by many writers and speakers that Indian culture is spiritual. What does it mean? Does it mean that all the people of India are spiritual? We have our own share of wicked people, unspiritual people, evil people. But if this statement has any meaning, it means this, that the direction of Indian culture is towards the high spiritual truth hidden in every human being and secondly the honour that the nation gives to any person depends upon the spiritual quality of that person,

You can study a culture by asking one question. What is the highest human excellence that is appreciated in that culture? In one culture it is military power, in another culture it is more intellectual strength, and in a third culture may be money. In India these are all respected. But the highest respect goes to a man of God. A man who has realised his oneness with all through spiritual development. Throughout history, India has maintained this quality. The highest man of India is man of God, man of spiritual realisation. Our hearts recognise in him something great and in this recognition there is no distinction of creed, no distinction of religion. Any religion showing high spiritual Quality will receive adoration from the people of India. It is not creed, it is not dogma, it is just spiritual–that man whatever may be his origin in a particular race, particular religion, he or she has gone beyond these distinctions He or she has realised the one behind the many. That is why many Muslim mystiques, Christian mystiques and mystiques of other religions are honoured in this country. They represent the spiritual development of man, the spiritual fulfilment of man. This was the background of the future development of Indian culture, commencing from the Vedic period. Very few cultures have received this philosophical and spiritual stimulus from behind compared to our own culture in this country. That is why there has been a succession of great teachers, great spiritual luminaries throughout our history.

Even in the most difficult period, tumultuous period of history, India did not fail to throw up great spiritual teachers. Take the period of the sixteenth century: Babar’s invasion, Mughal invasion. The whole country was shattered, especially in the north. So much suffering, so much killing, so many men and women were taken away as slaves at that time. In Babar’s history you will find the story. At that very time in that very Punjab we produced a Guru Nanak. He could see all the problems going around–the sufferings of the people–he has referred to them in his own songs as well; but it produced a Guru Nanak who was to give a new type of approach to the challenge that India faced at that time harmonislng the new element that has come. Several times we have done this harmony. New people came. When the Greeks came, we also took from the Greeks their great ideas, we developed a synthesis of India and Greece at that time. Foreign invaders came, they brought their culture. Slowly we assimilated and India became richer and richer with such assimilation. Then came, as I said, the Muslim period. This great invasion, first time–it was all a good way of India’s religious relationship. Missionaries came, spoke of great ideas, then came invaders. It is when invaders came the challenge became very big. To meet that challenge we had to throw up great personalities, great movements. Guru Nanak represents that tremendous response of the very spirit of India, the new challenge, but it is a positive response. If there is anything good in the new system we shall take it in, so he became a harmoniser of the Hindu tradition and the Muslim tradition; and in all the Bhakti movements that came thereafter, there is the impress of these two, the spiritual heritage of India and the social heritage of Islam. That is why they were democratic.

This democratisation took place in the middle ages. It was needed, because from ancient times we classified the society into four Varnas. As we call them, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, is an old classification. Originally it never meant anything more than certain capacities, certain talents, certain roles people play. But slowly it became ossified. All evil, elements began to enter into it. It was at that time we got Islamic invasion – Islamic influence –and the essential influence of Islam is that social democratic experiment where there is no distinction between man and man. We had all the distinction here. So you can see all the middle age saints, who came at that time, they took the social democracy of Islam and strengthened Indian society at that time. Though conditions were tremendously propitious – everywhere violence, destruction, destruction of temples, destruction of holy places–even then we had that wonderful mind to take what is good from any system that comes from outside. That was a later period. In the early period we had none of these problems.

All the religions that took birth in India were living side by side in harmony and co-operation and there were many such religions. First came the Vedic religion. Vedic religion itself contains many aspects. Then the great Buddhism in the sixth and seventh century B. C. Jainism, Vardhamana Mahavira–these were all wonderful developments. Great spiritual teachers instructing the people how to live in peace with oneself, in peace with others. Especially, in the historic period, we have Buddhism. Buddhism has behind it the ancient Upanishads, the great teachings of the Gita of Bhagavan Sri Krishna–all these are there behind the development of Buddhism. It was strengthening the nation giving it a tremendous spiritual and social vigour and dynamism. The Buddha himself was an extraordinary personality. India has a culture and a philosophy which is essentially impersonal.

Nobody has founded the religions of India. Nobody has founded this culture. A number of thinkers and scientists, their discoveries constituted the basis of the culture of this country. In many other places one individual stands behind a culture or behind a religion. We cannot trace any one of these to one single individual. All the Vedas contain so many sages. We don’t know who they were. We know so little about their lives but their thoughts are wonderful. In that sense we have an expression to deal with this cultural heritage including its religious and philosophical heritage. We call it apaurusheya. The Hindu religion–what later on came to be known as Hinduism, Hindu philosophy–is apaurusheya. There is no purusha or person behind it. It is thoroughly impersonal, based upon a number of truths, those truths which are universal. They were discovered by sages. You can rediscover them. That is the nature of scientific truth. So, this science of man in depth, this adhyatma vidya is the product of great sages. They gave us this insight and asked us to check up, verify this profound truth.

When Swami Vivekananda addressed the Chicago Parliament of Religions in 1893, he explained this Indian approach to the nature of religion in the Vedas. He said, no books are meant, they are the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons at different times and the discoverers of these laws we call them “Rishis” or sages. They can come from any caste, any community, any race. That is the language used there. And he added, “I am glad to tell this august audience that some of the greatest of these sages were women”. Very early period in India’s great history had an impersonal background of India’s cultural, philosophical, spiritual experiment. No other system can have, can have had, this kind of an impersonal background. Because it is impersonal, therefore, it is universal. No person can dictate to our people. But an impersonal truth is universal, as we say in physical science two plus two is four to every one in any part of the world. So also spiritual truths are universal. You can realise them for yourself. This is the background of India’s development. Against this impersonal background, India produced a galaxy of mighty personalities in every department of life – great scientists, great humanists, great spiritual teachers, great intellectuals, all these types of great personalities came based upon that impersonal background.

In our pre-historic period, we had Rama and Krishna, two great personalities that dominated Indian culture whose influence has gone beyond India to all over South East Asia. In the historic period, we had the Buddha and the Mahavira, two gigantic personalities. The Buddha born as a prince, renouncing that princely life, becoming an ascetic trying to realise this truth in the forest, through deep meditation. This story has been there with us for 2,500 years. What a wonderful event it was in human history! A prince renouncing a kingdom going into the forest and then he enters into a deep meditation, he realises profound truths and within a few centuries the Buddha enters into the hearts of millions and millions of people practically throughout Asia. That is a remarkable movement. The great Mahavira and the Jain religion was confined to India. But Buddhism went outside India. The first great missionary religion and because of the Upanisbadic background, that Vedantic background of tolerance, understanding, its intense concord among religions, you find one quality in the expansion of Buddhism within India and outside India, viz., absolute tolerance. Not a single act of violence or persecution you find associated with the expansion of Buddhism in India and outside India. This cannot be said of any religion, born outside India. Every religion born in India has this touch, the spirit of harmony, the spirit of understanding.

In the wake of the Buddha came the tremendous cultural development of India – all round development – our morale went up, our economic conditions went up, so many things became great at that time. Swami Vivekananda says, the most glorious period of India’s long history was just two, three hundred years after the Buddha when his spirit of humanism spread throughout the nation. He opened hospitals not only for human beings but for animals as well. That was the compassion that was released by this great spiritual personality.

In the wake of the Buddha came great empires, great political stales and the greatest of them was the Mauryan Empire period of Indian history. We are all facing war, violence, international destruction and the thinkers look at India of the third century B.C. producing an Ashoka. H. G. Wells who wrote the first world history, History of the World, outlines the world history where he places Ashoka as the greatest crown-head in the whole of human history – one who renounced war as an instrument of political policy and declared international peace as the greatest teaching of his empire and his political thoughts. That has not had any second example in human history. Similarly in the world of religion he proclaimed this truth of harmony and concord. That also has no parallel in human history. In various edicts, on rocks and pillars, Ashoka proclaims this humanistic message which India was absorbing from the teachings of the Buddha.

The teachings of the earlier great spiritual teachers at that time, the edict on toleration, is historic. You will not find it in the history of any other country. The twelfth rock edict of Ashoka mentions that “King Priyadarshan” –that was what he called himself, Devanam Priya. King Priyadarshan – “respects every religion, ascetics and followers of every religion and he gives gifts to followers of every religion and he wants that virtue and spirituality must come out of every religion.” Then he comes out with a wonderful statement: “If a follower of any religion considers his own religion as the only true one and he disparages religions of others, that very person really disparages his own religion, for in religious harmony, concord is the right way.” That particular utterance is something very historic, very unique, couched in the smallest utterance, purest words. Deepest meaning comes out of the utterance. In actual Sanskrit the utterance is Samavaya eva sadhu; samavaya – concord, eva – alone, sadhu is correct and proper. “In the world of religion samavaya alone is correct and proper and not discord, not violence, not tolerance, etc.”

Now, coming from the Rigveda getting strengthened through teachings of Srikrishna and the Gita, it did not remain merely with saints and sages. It influences our political thought, political state policy, both of big empires and smaller states here and there. That is one of the greatest inheritance of the people of India, the spirit of harmony, the spirit of tolerance, respect for every religion; and there are so many offshoots of this great policy when foreign religions began to come. When I say foreign religions, it means religions that had their birth outside India. Today most of them have become naturalised here. But when they came, they came from outside, what respect, what welcome they received in this country! That is something outstanding.

The first group that came was the Jew, the Israelites. They were received very kindly, sympathetically and with respect by the small State of Kerala. They were persecuted everywhere. Their temples were shattered by Romans in tyranny (70 AD). They dispersed all over the world. And a group came to India and to this day they have been here respected, honoured, allowed to practise their own culture and religion. It is an outstanding aspect of human history. They were persecuted all over the world. In every country they were looked down upon. Only in India they received respect and reverence. This is something unique in our history.

Similarly came the first Christian in the first century. And in Kerala itself – St. Thomas. That is a great tradition. That was also given all welcome. This land and the land of many religions respecting every religion. Anyone coming in the name of God or great spiritual teacher, is honoured here. Throughout the outstanding event was the coming of the Iranians, the Parsis, the Zoroastrians. There is a book written in Bombay by one Mr. Nanavati titled Parsis. I was fascinated when I read that book. You see a picture of the Parsis coming to the western part of the Gujarat coast of this country and there a scene is depicted in that book. When all the Parsi refugees are there, their high priest is there, and the Prince of that particular State is also there. Then a big meeting is going on and the prince is asking the High Priest: “What do you want us to do for you?” The High Priest says, “Give us permission to practise our religion and our culture in this country. “Granted” – no argument at all – granted. “What else do you want?” “Give us a piece of land which we can cultivate so that we do not become a burden on your society.” “Granted”. Like that two, three such questions, and the answer is very quick – “Granted.” Then a beautiful scene occurs. That Priest asks for a bowl of milk. Somebody brings a bowl of milk before the whole audience and there he puts a little sugar into that milk and he tells the audience and the king. “This milk represents you, the people of India and the sugar is we the Parsis who came from Iran. We shall sweeten your life here and nothing more.” How true it has been – throughout history of these twelve hundred years. When two cultured people meet together, this is what will happen. Have you any parallel of this in any part of the world?”

Today’s young generation must understand what is the quality of India’s cunure, who is the spirit of that culture, what is the wisdom behind that culture. We do not have it today. Our education does not give us any insight into this. That is why, we misbehave. We become un-Indian in our attitudes, un-Hindu, in our reactions. This we have to understand. But this great development – it is good for us to know. In the wake of Buddhism came, this wide diffusion of idea of harmony, tolerance, understanding. The same political state will support two, three religions giving respect and honour to everyone.

When the Chinese pilgrim Yuan Chwang came to India in the seventh century AD, he saw what an amount of tolerance, what an amount of understanding was there. He saw India a land of great knowledge, great universities – Nalanda, etc. He spent six years in that famous university, Takshashila in Peshawar area, a tremendous university, especially for medical sciences. This land was devoted to knowledge, devoted to wisdom, devoted to humanistic ideas. That is how it happened. But later on bad days came. When you live long enough, there will be ups and downs in life. We have lived long enough. We have seen so many ups and downs. That is why high prosperity. Then comes adversity, centuries together foreign invasions come, our political strength is not strong enough to resist foreign invasions. That is an interesting story.

When you study our culture you find two dimensions to this culture. One is called the Rishi Vamsha, the other is called Raja Vamsha. First is called the spiritual tradition. Second is called the political tradition. And between the two the Rishi Vamsha is always strong, always continuous, unbroken. The spiritual succession of India from the Vedic times up to Shri Ramakrishna has been uninterrupted. But the political succession of India has been interrupted again and again, broken again and again. That is one aspect of our history we must constantly keep in view. I said, even in the most tumultuous period of our history, India produced a Guru Nanak during Babar’s invasion. During the most dismal period of history in the nineteenth century, when we were under the British rule, we produced gigantic personalities like Shri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and others So, that is the spiritual strength of India, the spiritual continuity of India. That is called the Rishi Vamsha in the historic language but the other is Raja Vamsha.

We have been extremely bad in this Raja Vamsha period of human life. We are not politically well educated. We are lacking in political wisdom. That is what we are doing in the modern period. I can only mention this when we study the long history of India how many times they have broken up our, political states. Sometimes an Empire comes like Mauryan Empire. It was a challenge which met the Greek challenge at that time. Greeks invaded India because we were not· united. We had petty little states here and there. They easily could invade some part of India. As a reaction to this, India threw up a mighty Emperor Chandra Gupta Maurya. The Mauryan Empire united much of India at that time. This Empire has come again and again. The Gupta Empire later on. But as soon as some great ruler passes away, weaker rulers come and the empire breaks up into petty little states. This has happened again and again. Conjurors of little states open fighting with each other, political unwisdom has been written very very ingloriously in our history. We have to correct it in the modern period. But the spiritual side of it has been outstanding. India has never been an aggressive nation, remember that. That is because of the spiritual background.

When you respect every religion, when you see the same Atman in every being, how can you hate anyone? How can you go and fight and exploit any other person? The Updnishads saw this truth: Yastu sarvanibhutani atmanyevanipashyate, sarvabhuteshu chatmanam tato navijigupsate. “When you see the same Atman in every being, when you see every being in the Atman, you cannot hate anyone – only love can come from you”. This teaching was strengthened later on by the great teachings of the Buddha and others which have gone deep into the blood of India (Indian people). This is why during these five thousand long years of history there is not a single instance of India practising aggression, military aggression, on outside nations. We had a political strength, we had a military strength very often but we did not believe in it.

Any nation that expands its energy immediately becomes an imperial nation with imperial conquest. Greece did it. Tiny little native City States were there fighting always against each other. They were all unified by Philip, later on by Alexander. The energies so generated could not be contained within Greece. Military had exploded into a military conquest of all the neighbouring countries from Greece up to Punjab. Throughout became the Greek Empire. In recent period we have seen the British Isles – a tiny island nation. They quarrelled amongst themselves all the time. Whenever they quarrelled too much they became united. Many countries do it to overcome the internal difference. You start an aggression outside, you all join together. Britain has done it several times. Swami Vivekananda refers to it. India has not that kind of stimulus to unite, to fight with somebody. We have never done it.

And so, throughout these centuries when we had expanded our energies in Buddhism later on, the Gupta period, etc., we expressed it only in the cultural sphere, spiritual sphere, philosophical sphere. India has invaded the rest of the world philosophically, spiritually again and again. According to a famous British writer. E. J. Arwik – his book is called The Message of Plato – you can never understand Plato and Aristotle, without understanding the Upanishads. Study the Upanishads, you will find Plato and Aristotle clear to you. Otherwise you wouldn’t understand it at all. So India has influenced so many of these foreign countries throughout history, in the world of thought, in the world of ideas, in the world of culture. Look at that scene presented by Plato. Socrates is to drink poison. Even that event can never happen in India. Socrates, the noblest of men, was condemned by the Athenian democracy as one who was misguiding the youth of Athens. Therefore, he must be killed. He must drink poison and die. Can you imagine a man like Socrates being put to death in a country like India? He will be the centre of worship. We will honour him.

Even later when Jesus Christ was crucified in Palestine what is it due to? Intolerance. Intolerance of any new idea. Here, if Jesus Christ was here, he would have been worshipped, even in his lifetime as divine. That is India’s culture. But Bertrand Russell once said about such events like Socrates and Jesus Christ and others, “If you teach the world faster than it can learn, you are in for trouble for yourself.” That is what he said. Do not teach the world faster than they can learn. Socrates spoke something beyond the comprehension of Greeks at that time. Jesus did the same thing. Whereas such teachings are common to us.

When the Buddha spoke high ideas, highly metaphysical, highly rational, we all understood it, we accepted it at that time. Sankaracharya did it. Even today Swami Vivekananda – beautiful things he says – criticised our religion, our society. We did not kill him. We honour him. That is India. This Wonderful country. That culture is behind us, that quality is there. And so you find throughout the ages, this wonderful idea, that particular event in Socrates’s life.

I would like to mention, to show the impact of Indian ideas on the Greek mind, which the Westerners cannot understand, except their scholars, men like E. J. Arwik. Socretes drinking poison, so many disciples are sitting around. They are weeping. Socretes is calm. But they are weeping. Socrates chides them: “Send away the women from here and you are also weeping.” They became quiet. One of them asks a question–Crito, by name: “Socrates, how shall we bury you?” Socrates smiles and says: “You must first catch me, the real me, before you ask to bury me. Be a good cheer, Crito. You refer to this body. As to the body do with it what you do with other people’s:” This can be a chapter in any Upanishad. When you read in the Kathopanishad, in the Bhagavad Gita, “Nainam chhindanti astraani, nainam dahati paavakaaha, nachaivam kledayam tyaapi, na shoshayati marutaha “This Atma, the divine in man, no water can wet in, no fire can burn it, no air can dry it. It is immortal. That is why he could face death with a gentle smile.

That is the great teaching of India which has influenced some of these cultures by way of mutual collaboration. In this modern period we have the great challenge before us. We have a tremendous cultural inheritance. It has got diverse aspects. At one time we thought India is only a religious country. Its culture is only religious or philosophical. No positivistic element is there, in Indian culture. That mistaken idea was there towards the end of the last century. Always religion and philosophy; philosophy and religion. But one supreme aspect of Indian culture everybody could see, that is, its artistic aspect.

The aesthetic element of Indian culture is tremendous. What is the source of that aesthetic element? In the Taittiriya Upanishat there is a beautiful description of the supreme divine. That is not only Sat, that means real; not only Chit, that means pure consciousness; but also Ananda. It is the nature of bliss. Out of this bliss element of the divine reality came the tremendous impulse to develop art and aesthetic ideas in this country literature, poetry and drama, then dance, music of various types. Today India’s artistic heritage, in spite of much destruction during the medieval period, still is simply rich and marvellous.

The other great heritage is, as I said, our philosophy and spirituality. So rational. In no other country you will find rational religion. You cannot question. Religions are based on creeds and dogma. Don’t question, accept it and go away. If you question, the dogma will break down. In India, on the other hand, the more you question the better. The Upanishads ask, you to question. The Buddha asks you to question. Today, Shri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda ask you to question. By questioning alone you can get the truth of religion. Because it is a science of human possibilities. That is the nature of philosophy presented here. They call it Vedanta. The great philosophy of India coming from the Upanishads through various phases, including the Buddhistic phase. That is called the Advaita Vedanta of India, very rational, very practical, very universal and that is the philosophy that is challenging even the most advanced aspects of modern science today. That is India’s cultural inheritance.

We have, as I said, a high cultural inheritance. Our political inheritance has been very weak and today that is the problem that we face in India. We have a bright soul, ever pure and every contemporary civilisation has tried to come in touch with that soul of India. So healthy, so pure it has no evil intentions against anybody, only love and human concern. That is why every contemporary civilization wanted to come in touch with India for two things. One, the wisdom of India; two, the wealth of India. Wealth of India invited trade. Trade has been tremendous.

Even recently you found in Tamilnadu a whole city being unearthed from the sea, a Roman port, where Roman ships are lying below. We are trying to bring them up for the time being. Roman coins are found in various places. In fact, Roman Senate passed a law against Indian trade. Because too much of Roman gold was going on here. India had a tremendous trade with Arabia, with Egypt, with Palestine. In art, with Rome, Greece as well.

So, that is our ancient heritage. That heritage is facing a new challenge. Up to now we had many challenges. We faced them. But today there is a new challenge. How are we going to face this? How did nineteenth century India, coming in touch with a new powerful culture of the West, along with political subjugation, face that particular situation? One thing you must know. There is a tree. It has sap in it. It is strong. Now the bark of the tree is supporting the tree. The tree grows; the bark also grows. Then it becomes a living tree. If the bark does not grow along with the tree, the bark will compress the tree and kill it. But a living tree will shed an old bark and put new bark for itself. India is a living tree. It has shed many barks, always new, always fresh, but the tree itself is eternal sanatanaha.

So we have this wonderful tree growing, strengthening, widening and, in modern period, the bigger challenge has come and we have met the challenge. We are still strong today. That is the wonderful story for our people today. History is good. You look backwards. But don’t look backwards too much. You are living today. See the future. Swami Vivekanada said, therefore, “Look to the past, learn its lessons, you learn its warnings; look to the future and create history “So, I tell all our young people wherever I go, in India, “Do not merely study history. Remember you are now engaged in creating history. Till now you were victims of history. Other people created history. We became creatures of that history for the last thousand years. Today you have the capacity to create history and through this creation you will influence the whole world.”

(To be continued)

Back