Indian culture and its restoration

[suchandra 1]

Seems like author below refers to this verse upon he considers India's culture is build upon, "O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed."

Indian culture and its restoration

posted September 05 2008

 

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?title=Indian%20culture%20and%20its%20restoration&articleID=140678

 

Our rich and glorious past and our antiquity have given us our culture in terms of advanced development of human powers of the body, mind, and spirit within us. But we have failed to preserve the glory that was India in the true sense of the term.

 

WHAT IS it, which makes us Indians? This is a highly relevant question, and I think that every Indian should ask this question to himself quite often. The answer to this is not that easy, but, in an informal way, one can say that it is our distant past, long antiquity, perhaps prehistoric, our age-old traditions and traits, evolved in its present form through different phases and periods of human history. They were influenced by various exogenous and endogenous factors and processes, with which we are continuously linked in one way or the other, and which provide all positive impetus and strength to us to move forward with life as it comes to us. In fact, our rich and glorious past and our antiquity have given us our culture in terms of advanced development of human powers of the body, mind, and spirit within us. Our civilisation and the rich heritage of the past have added to our culture in various ways. Our culture and civilisation are positively correlated and have very strong inter-linkages. Both have a strong causal relationship and add to a dominating virtuous circle.

 

But, somehow, we have miserably failed to live up to these aspirations and postulates, and have failed to preserve the glory that was India in the true sense of the term.

 

In this write-up we shall first briefly look at the basic tenets of the ancient Indian culture from the perspective of a layman, without going into the details of religion and religious traditions. We need not specify what is contained in our scriptures and epics (like, the Upanishads, Vedas, Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana), mythologies, and philosophical viewpoints and interpretations, as emphasised and underlined in various forms of Hinduism like, Classical Bhakti Hinduism, Tantric Hinduism, Sectarian Hinduism (including Bhakti Revivalism, and Saint-Singer Traditions), the on-going popular Hinduism, Hindu responses to other religions, and to western culture, and even to westernisation. And then, we will see how we can possibly restore what has been lost.

 

The basic tenets of the ancient Indian culture:

 

It has been said that, unlike other ancient cultures of Greeks, Romans, and Chinese, Indian culture tends towards fatalism and quietism, accepting fortune and misfortune alike without complaint. There is a natural reason for this, which lies in the fact that, unlike other countries, India has always been blessed with bounteous nature, which demands little from man in return for what it bestows on him. Simultaneously, it also sometimes goes violent in terms of natural calamities and disasters of various varieties, which have no human remedies, whatsoever. It is this kind of a mix of kind and cruel nature that has taught Indians to be moderate, God-fearing, fatalists, and tolerant to accept life as it comes to them without any reaction against what happens. In other words, this means an optimal behaviour in order to extract the maximum amount of happiness from what is available, of course given the exogenous variables and constraints. The nature, thus, helped us to develop love of ease and comfort, and also an addiction to the simple pleasures and luxuries of life. This, in fact, cultivated an impulse to self-control in terms of being ascetic, on the one hand, and strenuous, on the other. This should not be misconstrued to mean that Indians are devitalised people without any vigour and enthusiasm. This is highly exemplified by the achievements of ancient India in various areas like immensely effective irrigation network and splendid temples and monuments all over.

 

Another important trait is that our traditions have been preserved to a large extent without a break to the present day. In other words, Indian culture is fully conscious of its antiquity, goes on continuously without any break. Another example of this kind is the Chinese culture. All other cultures of the world like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece lack this trait.

 

Humanity is also an important feature of Indian culture in the sense that despite the religious sanction of inequality at birth, Indian culture is characterised by cordial and fair and human relations of man to man, and of man and the state. This is exemplified by historical facts in terms lesser number of slaves with well protected rights; fair play in battles; much lesser massacres, cruelty, and oppression as compared to other early cultures.

 

Physical and spiritual enjoyment is another attribute of the Indian culture, which amounts to enjoying both in the things of the senses and the things of the spirit.

 

We can, therefore, conclude to say that our culture has been a unique culture through out history, where people, despite complex and slowly evolving social systems, and other constraints, always strive to reach higher level of kindliness and gentleness in their mutual relationships than any other nation, and also entertained an understanding for the agony of others.

 

There is no denying the fact that there have occurred serious lapses in our culture at different times in different periods of our history. In the present scenario there has been decay in all the traits that we have mentioned above in smaller or greater degree, essentially in larger urban areas, and not so much in remote habitations. This can possibly be attributed to a variety of socio-economic and political factors, and also to demonstration-effects of the outside world, which have become worse and more intense, may be through the process of globalisation, opening-up, and liberalisation.

 

Let us briefly see how best we can restore this rich heritage? There are both short and long period remedies, though the former are more difficult and ineffective in the kind of a democratic system that exists in our country. We have, therefore, to rely on long-period remedies, may be directly or through catalyst agents. The most important medium here is our education system, both formal and informal.

 

Talking of formal education, the study of history, culture and philosophy, literature, theology (emphasising science of the nature of god and of the foundations of religious beliefs), and comparative religions and their assimilation in our day-to day life can surely play a crucial role, and bring in rich dividends. We must not forget that we are a secular state, and have many religions, each of which must be fully honoured. In fact, all religions and religious beliefs eventually take us to the same ultimate destination of truth. The means may differ, but the end remains the same. This kind of thinking, if percolated all over, can, to a large extent, save us from the chaotic situation we are going through in recent times.

 

Simultaneously with formal education, informal education is also important. It is informal in the sense that it is imparted informally by parents, families, elders, and also by the society to imbibe the good virtues, sanskars, and the basic rituals of our culture among our children.

 

Let us have full faith in us and try to imbibe all the values, for which India stands, and restore our culture to the best of our ability. The role of the state is also crucial in this context. It has to have the political will to go ahead with its people, and think more of the survival of our rich culture rather than of its individual vested interests. The future is bright. Let us reach it by restoring our past.