The
problem with journalist of lately in India is that they try to reduce
everything to political sociology and feel compelled to give their lofty
judgments on everything based on that.
Human
beings and the whole of nature is vibrating with life which is a multifaceted
splendor operating, functioning , enjoying and experiencing through multiple
parameters, of which politics and social systems happen to be just one meant to
regulate the social dimensions of life, provide the material necessities and
economic benefits and ensure to establish a respectable social order wherein
everyone one can live in harmony and peace following certain set rules and
regulations of social structure.
So, let us set the record
straight here.
1.
Sanathana Dharma
is not a brand or product and therefore needs neither marketing nor marketers.
2.
I am not
promoting but placing bland facts on record i.e. Sanathana Dharma is one of the
most rational and philosophical way of understanding life in totality without
any conditions or constraints; it is a readily available reference manual for gaining
wisdom; experiencing enlightenment and to uplift the soul spiritually; In short
a grand way to enjoy and experience life.
It is beyond the boundaries of any branded religion, region or nation. For
example today we have two great examples of Sanathana Dharma in Neale Donald
Walsch and Echart Tolle
3.
His Holiness Shri. Jayandra Saraswathy a highly respected
person heading a very great institute. However, he cannot be considered as a
great, effective and efficient ambassador for propagating the most intrinsic
tenets of Sanathana Dharma to the outside world for various reasons.
4.
We cannot blame
him because he is a head of an existing highly revered and ancient institution
whose main agenda itself is to ensure and maintain the most orthodox
ritualistic aspects of Sanathana Dharma [not the philosophical exposition
appealing to intellectual reasoning aspect of Sanathana Dharma] and this cannot
be expected to be either understood or to have any appeal to any outsider to
local tradition, whether good, necessary or useful or otherwise to life is
highly debatable. In fact Shri Jayandra Saraswathy’s presence would have
projected Sanathana Dharma in a very ineffective way.
5.
Whereas starting
from Swami Vivekananda [the most important person to make the whole world know the
philosophical and spiritual greatness of Sanathan Dharma] to Shri. Aurobindo [
The man who defined through a great master piece Synthesis of Yoga the import
of Yoga] to Prabhu Phada [ the man who showed that Sanathana dhrama followers
also can make methodical missionary mode of operations if necessary] to Sri Sri Ravishankar [ who preaches peaceful
solutions to global citizens] to Maa Amirthananda Mayi [ who exudes compassion]
to Jaggi Vasudev [ who prioritizes unfettered clarity of perception as a method
to understand life and live with nature in dignity and unity] and many more
such souls and they explained in detail the intrinsic great universally vital
philosophies enshrined in various texts of Sanathan Dharma and institutions
grew around them to make their interpretations of teachings to be given out in
an organized manner and also to run many institutes of usefulness and
importance to human life with whatever funds they got from followers.
6.
We would be doing
great disservice if we leave out three great enlightened souls from India who
also made the most vital philosophies of life to be understood by humanity. Their
main philosophical approach though non religious in presentation but are important
manuals of reference and guidance in terms of better understanding of life devoid
of any preconceived concepts or constraints of any conditioning and a very
direct approach to enlightenment in al spheres of life.
7.
They are Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharishi,
J.Krishnamurthy, Rajneesh [Osho].
8.
Ultimately if
anyone who had even the slightest brush with the major philosophical texts of
Sanathana Dharma would understand that they are manuals for life of all in tune
with nature and not necessarily any narrow institutional or institutionalizable
code of dos and don’ts, because the very value of Sanathana Dharma is the freedom
to experience life as a journey of the soul not confining life as a social
unit.
9.
So dealing and
doting out Sanathan Dharma as another religion would be doing disservice to its
intrinsic principles.
10. However, institutions are the inevitable methods
through which the treasures of wisdom of enlightened souls can be disseminated
for posterity through various means.
11. So, for a true seeker the institutions are not the priority
much more so for a great philosophy of life like Sanathan Dharma.
12. Here is a transcription of a wonderful speech at The International Conference on
Interfaith.7th and 8th Sep 2009, Somaiya Auditorium, Mumbai in
2009 [ excuse the grammatical errors because as the speech was going someone
did the transcription in his labtop] http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2011/01/culture-philosophy-literature-and.html
13. Adi Shankara united India spiritually; Swamy
Vivekananda connected India through its spiritualism to the world; Mahaperiyava
Sri Chandrasekarendra saraswathy ensured that Indians remained connected to the
works of these two great souls with constitutional guarantee and Sardar
Vallbhai Patel united India geographically...
India is a land of divine splendors and
inexplicable wonders. The role of Adi Shankara, Swami Vivekananda, Sri
Chandrasekarendra Saraswathy, Sardar Vallabhai Patel are very unique in that
they descended on the scene to fulfill a great mission for India as a nation
and to uphold and share with the whole world the great philosophical concepts
of Sanathana dharma. Our greatest weakness was lack of documentation, failing
to propagate at the right time [not after many centuries have passed by], fail
to do and/or promote contextually relevant and most import thing [prioritizing
first things first] at specific junctures etc.
Of course, the last factor mentioned above
i.e. prioritizing contextually relevant thing was taken care of, mostly, as if
by some divine intervention, at crucial times through roles played by some
great souls :-
Like Adi Shankara who actually united the
country psychologically and culturally by unearthing many important concepts of
Sanathana Dharma;
Like Swami Vivekananda who brought to the
notice of the Western world the great teachings of Sanathana Dharma by opting
to address them in their language and in the idiom that would appeal to them,
both these acts were timely;
Similarly the 68th Sankaracharya of Kanchi
Mutt popularly known as Mahaperiyava Sri Chandrasekarendra saraswathy ensured
the introduction of some parts of article 26 of The Indian Constitution which
enable every Indian to worship and practice his/her respective religion or
sect, “Again, when the Indian Constitution was being framed, Paramacharya
called a well-known Vedic scholar and asked him to meet Sardar Vallabhai Patel
to pass on a message from Him on the need for a vital provision in the
Constitution to the effect that the religious belief. This message was duly
transmitted through a meeting arranged by "The Hindu" with the
visiting officials of the Indian Government with the Vedic scholar deputed by
Paramacharya. As a result Article 26 of the Constitution was enshrined and this
extended constitutional protection, not just to the major religions-Hinduism or
Islam-but to every sub-sect of these
religion”-[http://www.kamakoti.org/souv/5-52.html ];
After independence Sardar
Vallabhai Patel ensured uniting the multiple smaller kingdoms;
In the early 90s one man wanted to retire
from politics and moved away but he was inducted as Prime Minister Shri
P.V.Narasimha Rao, who for the first time, post Independence made
parliamentarians know that, besides politics, economic progress and activities
towards that were also part of Government;
Similarly recently when corruption,
atrocities and anti –national activities reached a saturation point, destiny of
India has found in MODI a leader who has a vision, intention, credentials,
mandate etc to lead the nation to greater heights.
So,
in the present context what India needs to do, is not to resort to singing the
refrain of its past glories but rather prioritize and concentrate, with wisdom,
to progress in domains that matter more at present like economic development
which will take care of better survival conditions for many, eradication of
poverty to a very great extent, generate employment, improve education and
research in science, technology, communication, infrastructure etc.
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