[world-vedic] Vedacharya from the West

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>Title: Vedacharya from the West

>Publication: Times of India

>Date march 30, 2000

>

>David Frawley, a grand-disciple of Ramana Maharishi, is widely acknowledged

>as a Vedacharya. Also known as Vamadeva Shastri, he was conferred the title

>of `Pandit' for his pioneering research work in Vedic studies, yoga,

>ayurveda

>and jyotish in his institute in New Mexico, USA. Author of several books on

>Hinduism, his writings seek to contrast the generally flippant and dry

>academic presentations of western Indologists. During a recent lecture-tour

>of India, David Frawley spoke to Gaurav Raina:

>

>What do you find unique about India and Hinduism?

>

>India is a greatly favoured land in terms of cosmic beneficence according

>to

>the Vaastu aspect of its geographical location. The Himalayas, or Meru

>Parvat, oversee the whole of India in the likeness of the prime sahasrara

>chakra in the human body. The tapas of so many yogis and mystics and the

>timely appearance of avataras and saints over thousands of years have

>greatly

>accentuated this spiritual potency. The Hindu religion is like a gigantic

>banyan tree with its refreshing, ever ramifying growth, change and

>variegation, which is a contrast to Western religion as a monolithic

>pillar.

>

>In the Indian ethos the pursuit of consciousness has traditionally been

>given

>priority over the need to understand the visible material world. There are

>various yogic systems for realising this higher consciousness. There is

>also

>evidence of a yogic methodology in India's every sphere of learned activity

>such as in music, dance, poetry, architecture, astronomy and medicine.

>

>Hinduism comprises of a multiplicity of sects and philosophies. Do you

>think

>such diversity is a cause for confusion ?

>

>The Indian tradition is pluralistic and has always offered freedom of

>worshipping the divine in the name and form of one's choice and according

>to

>one's individual samskaras. It is pluralistic both at the level of

>religious

>practices as well as philosophical teachings. For this reason we find more

>religions inside Hinduism than among all of the world's religions put

>together.

>

>Pluralism means freedom. It means that we should accept religious

>differences

>as a fact of life, like other natural variations. We need freedom to arrive

>at the truth. The pursuit of dharma, the urge for self-realisation and

>desire

>for liberation are common to all paths. Rather than as a cause for

>confusion,

>I see Indian pluralism as constructively facilitating an individual's

>spiritual quest.

>

>Can one be rational and scientific and yet be religious and spiritual?

>

>Unlike in the West, Indian sages never perceived science and religion as

>incompatible. Religion was viewed mainly as a way of knowledge -- vidya or

>veda, as a way of seeing, a philosophy. Knowledge is of two types. Apara

>vidya or lower knowledge is necessary for our practical functioning in life

>and deals with the outer world of name, form and causation. The second,

>para

>or higher knowledge is concerned with consciousness and the Absolute

>Reality.

>

>Indian sages regarded higher knowledge as more important, but did not

>regard

>lower or outer knowledge as wrong or disharmonious. The science versus

>religion dichotomy that became dominant in Europe in the nineteenth

>century,

>never really existed in classical India. The Indian model therefore seeks

>to

>resolve rather than perpetuate the Western conflict between an immoral

>science versus an irrational religion. Even the different systems of

>philosophy in India were more like scientific theories meant to be debated

>rationally or explored and experienced through meditation. Religion can

>thus

>be seen as a higher form of science. Anyone who systematically practices

>prescribed ritual methods, meditation procedures and mantras, can

>experience

>higher states of consciousness and thereby validate his or her religious

>belief.

>

>Why are the ancient scriptures today seen by many as mythical and

>fantastic?

>

>The Vedas are composed in an ancient language of mantra, myth and symbol

>and

>utilise a rich poetic and imagistic expression. The modern mind being

>conditioned by contemporary thought and language lacks the necessary

>empathy

>and insight into the ancient texts. What we tend to regard as mythological

>in

>the puranas and itihasas was never meant to portray the actual state of

>things in time and space. These texts include not just the visible world in

>their scope but also the invisible worlds belonging to subtle and astral

>dimensions of existence.

>

>If there are some apparent chronological inaccuracies in the scriptures, it

>is because sacred history takes into account the relationship between the

>temporal and the eternal and is less concerned with the actual dates of

>various events. This is in sharp contrast to the linear view of time held

>by

>contemporary historians who are ignorant of the relationship of time with

>the

>eternal. We should not approach the scriptures from the primarily academic

>standpoint of a historian, archaeologist or linguist; we should exercise an

>intuitive and meditative insight.

>

>You are a former Catholic. What is your view of the recent incidents of

>violence against the Indian Christian community?

>

>I do not consider the missionary form of Christianity an enlightened

>religion. Conversion activity is an assault on intellectual freedom and

>destroys native cultures as we have seen in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

>It

>is more like a sales gimmick which targets the poor and uneducated. Then

>there is also the history of the missionaries having sub-served European

>colonisers by providing a justification for their brutalities. The Catholic

>Church chose to be silent on the excesses of the Nazis and its tacit

>understanding with Mussolini, and more recently with Chile's Pinochet, are

>no

>secret.

>

>Violence against Christians has been exaggerated a great deal by the

>Western

>media. Such backlashes have occurred throughout history all over the world.

>Missionary zeal tends to offend the religious sensibilities of people by

>denouncing their native religions as false and pagan.

>

>To what extent are India and Indian culture misrepresented in the Western

>media?

>

>Firstly India is greatly under represented in the Western media. Whatever

>little news we have emphasises poverty, social problems, human rights

>abuses

>and alarmist reports of military and nuclear policies. The entertainment

>and

>advertising aspect of the media is on the other extreme and treats

>everything

>Indian as ``exotic and erotic''.

>

>Indians have failed to learn the lessons of effective media articulation.

>Hindu organisations have been labelled fundamentalist and often end up with

>a

>far worse image than they deserve. The Indian government too has failed to

>promote Indian culture and to lobby its case with the Western governments.

>In

>fact India's gurus have done much a better job than its politicians and

>diplomats, in projecting the country's image abroad.

>

>I am concerned at the absence of a dharmic intelligentsia in this country.

>It

>is imperative that Indians free themselves from colonial, Marxist and

>missionary distortions of their culture. They need to stop playing

>apologist

>for the genuine cultural and spiritual aspirations of their people. They

>should reverse their blind and obsequious adulation of the West. The great

>spiritual traditions of India will be lost if its intellectual kshatriyas

>fail to wake up to the call of the information war and lay siege to the

>false

>apostles of religious freedom.

>

 

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