The Spirit of Indian Spiritual Inheritance

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The true greatness of Indian spiritual inheritance consists in the

secret and glorious methods it has delivered to us for allaying

life's sorrow and human unhappiness and for acquiring for the

circumstance of human existence, the infinite peace and perfection of

the Divine Being. Human grief cannot be alleviated as long as the

human individual is immured in ignorance and strives merely for his

individual pleasure and good. The genius of India has, to its

immortal honour, soared above the conventional ties and the bonds of

society, grasped the spiritual truth, realised it and proclaimed to

the world, for the welfare of all mankind, that " Life is One " and not

many. Apart from the petty disharmonies between one person and

another, the nations of the world seem to be separated from each

other and this virulent notion of division and separation is the

mother of war and destruction. Deceived by the spectacular

advancement of scientific knowledge, modern mind in all countries and

continents has not cared to understand the fundamental meaning of

life, and sought its satisfaction in a sensational floating upon the

apparently attractive scum of Existence. Such has been the spirit in

which science has taken its marvellous strides in progress, that it

has nothing in its constitution to drive it towards a grasp of the

deep and significant changes that man undergoes beneath his scalp,

towards understanding the potentialities of man as a mind, as a

heart, as a spirit, as a creative entity, towards directing his

aspirations, towards aiding the blossoming of the noblest forces that

lie buried and latent in his bosom. Redounding to the eternal credit

of the genius of India, there lies the momentous fact that at the

very dawn of civilisations, it has raised the deepest issues of life,

questioned the limitations of human existence, ventured forth for a

solution into the realms of that Infinite Power that is

found 'feebly' interpenetrating this world of physics, physical

experience, materialistic philosophy and 'sputniks,' discovered that

guiding, governing and sustaining Permanent Ground upon which is

played the tragi-comic drama of life and the pride of men that are

dressed in brief authority. If there is anything valuable in life as

a whole, it is the knowledge of the solution of the apparent riddle

of existence, the knowledge of the essential nature and the real

destiny of man, the knowledge of man's real relations to the other

men, to the universe, to the Transcendence, and this knowledge is the

glorious heritage of India. The men of India who are also the men of

God, men who have imposed upon themselves the disciplines that lead

them to Perfection, to living the good life, the ideal life, the

divine life, the life in the inner Reality and for the happiness of

mankind, for the solidarity of the world, have discovered the road to

Success and Achievement, discerned the clues to progress and

perfection, in a strict adherence to the rhythms of the universal

laws and the eternal verities that guide in accordance to the genius

inherent in them, humanity as a whole and all manifestation to the

final denouement in a Divine Existence.

 

The attitude of life which the Indians developed was based upon the

nature of the End or the Goal to be attained through the

instrumentality of the phenomenon of life-life which is a step, a

stage, and not the end in itself. This attitude ensouls the righteous

law, the Dharma, and to it, the universe becomes what it

intrinsically is, the Dharma-Kshetra, or the arena for the display

and the justification of the prowess of the right action, the action

whose whole spirit moves towards the realisation of the absolute Good

that is the nature of the Infinite Being. The ideal of Dharma forms

the substratum upon which is built the structure of the whole life of

man who wishes to resolve the riddle of his personal life, win

victory over the struggle of existence, be crowned with a strange and

ethereal joy even while he is living in the environment of the world,

of this imperfect earth that is the heir to change, sorrow, and

death. Dharma is virtue and virtue is that which leads one to the

most perfect condition, the condition that is identical with the

ultimate success constituted of the joy of life, unlimited,

unfettered and unalloyed, complete beyond expression. As the highest

virtue that man may practise, Ahimsa is both a negative withdrawal

and a positive assertion of the 'mind'. It is refraining from doing,

speaking and thinking anything which will cause pain and sorrow to

any other individual, to any living being. This represents the

negative aspect of the discipline of Ahimsa. Its positive aspect is

brought out by an expression of universal love, love that has no

partiality, love that excludes nothing, love that cares not for the

effect of love! The ideal of universal love is a spontaneous self-

fulfilment in the delight of a discovery of Oneself, of the

universally self-same, our own inner consciousness in all. Until this

is done, no civilization is genuine, no culture is true, nothing is

perfect and lasting. In one word, it is in the light of absolute

Conciousness which is undifferentiated that Ahimsa which is more a

matter of spirit than an effect of a mere act, is practised.

 

Immediately succeeding the devotion to the principle of Ahimsa, comes

the practice of the excellence of truth. To the spiritual genius,

Truth is more than truth-speaking; it is God or the Absolute; it is

that which triumphs, not untruth. Again, Truth is right; untruth is

wrong; that which elevates one and takes one nearer to God is right,

that which brings one down and takes one away from God is wrong. And

that God towards which our whole inner being must rise, in the

indivisible unity of conscious existence, the infinity of delight and

awareness. Control over passions constitutes the essence of truth;

self-denial or refraining from greedy indulgence is truth; to permit

the spiritual element in us triumph is truth. Truth is a life in the

eternal. Untruth is change, decay and death. Love is truth; hatred is

untruth; harmony is truth; disharmony is untruth. There is no greater

sin than hatred and battle-the pungent word and the insolent action,

the arrogance and the uncharitableness, the egoistic self-assertion

and vehement action of the selfish impulse. Relative truths are valid

only insofar as they do not run against the grain of absolute truth

which is the Eternal in the highest sense.

 

The third canon is the self-control which is the holding in check of

the instinctive urges that try to drag the individual away from the

experience of the truth. Self-control is a universal rule

unexceptionally applicable to all men and all women, at all places

and at all times. It is the very key to beatitude. Indulgence in

externalities, in sensuous objects, in physical pleasures is the

effect of the failure of the individual to discriminate the spiritual

value from the material chaff, the Truth from the untruth. Desire to

have contact with and enjoy outward things is the outcome of the

ignorance of the Truth that is God, the Truth that is the Infinite

Existence. Self-control is the restraint of the outgoing tendencies

of the senses and the mind and to centre the same in the active

participation of Truth-existence, the Universal One. This self-

control, this energization of consciousness, this Tapas, this

restraining of one's externalising, self-diffusing energies and

founding oneself upon that one Cosmic Being is Dharma that supports

the life and law of the universe, integrates the being of man, and

spreads before the vision of man the creative God-centred life.

Adharma is selfishness and egoism of nature which leads to self-

imprisonment, suffering and failure in life. Absolute righteousness

means the sacrifice of the self for universal well-being, the well-

being pertaining not merely to the earth but to the highest spiritual

reality, the well-being of keeping the Consciousness in its poise

liberated from the distraction engendered by the darkness of

ignorance, separativencss, division, limitedness. It is the opposite

of " I " -ness and " mine " -ness which belong to the nature of the world

of bondage.

 

Life on earth is not self-sufficient and, hence, there is perpetual

flux of states to reach other states of superior knowledge and

happiness. Life in this world and in this body is only a preparation,

a step for the higher life. That which we see and hear of is not the

real; the Real is beyond this. To reach the Real, the present life

acts as a ladder, a field of activity that affords the conditions and

the scope for the individual to establish its relations with the most

exalted Divine Life. Wrong it is to restrict the outlook of our life

to the perceptible phenomena and to judge our sense of values in

relation to the objective worth of things. The grandeur and greatness

of our life rests upon the measure to which we have raised ourselves

into the law of inmost life in general, in the Supreme Being.

Dealings with one another are justified only so long as they do not

deviate from the eternal law of the Spiritual Nature. Neither social

welfare nor national betterment is possible by mere clinging to

shadows and forgetting the essential Substance. The substance of

Truth does not belong to any particular person for it is the being

and life of whatever that is. That which is One and Common can only

be divisionless and all-inclusive in a self-identical existence. This

is the fulness of attainment and the culmination of all the

aspirations and ideals of life.

 

In this integral spiritual view of life is rooted the ethical basis

of social and domestic relationship. Society is the collective body

of individuals determined to pierce the veils and enter the realms of

Immortal Being with the power of a unified and common aspiration and

struggle to grasp the Highest. Unified we live; divided we cease to

live. Human relationship is not meant to signify anything less than

the attempt to live in everyday life the spiritual egoless love that

is at the background of all existent beings. The love of the Self

means the love of everything of the universe. The Indian genius would

complete the teaching " Love thy neighbour as thyself " by

adding " because thy neighbour is thy own Self " . Altruistic love is

the expression of eternal unison of the Infinite Life that lies at

the depth of the universe. If family or society or nation is

understood as a means to separate one from another, however much

large the scope of its inclusion of human beings may be, such a

family, such a society, such a nation, cannot triumph. All

relationship is expected to end in the absolute unity of existence

excluding nothing from itself. This goal of life should be borne in

mind in the process of daily activities if our actions are to be free

from selfishness, at one with the universal movement of Nature. Life

is a divine worship. The proper conduct of family, the administration

of the country and the society is a part of the Universal Government

which looks at the entirety of beings with a strictly impartial eye.

We live because God exists and our life is to be perfect and just

even as God is perfect and just. We exist in God's Being, we breathe

and move in Him.

 

The knowledge of this unity of life and the proper moral and the

ethical attitude required to start the process of realising it are

achieved through being directly instructed by the teacher who is

truly advanced in knowledge and has attained Self-perfection.

 

The psychology of Gurukulavasa is inseparably connected with the

science of self-discipline and Self-knowledge. It is not the

mechanical education of the present day that is meant by real

education in the Gurukula, but the means of erasing out the

propensities that cloud the awareness of the Truth and controlling

the distractive nature of the psyche. Self-mastery is the effect of

the protracted checking of the ego-sense and centring of it in the

General God-Being which is egoless, free from the sense of individual

existence. The religion, the philosophy, the code of ethical and

social law of India are all universal in their character.

Universality is the expression of the nature of the Reality. The

highest universal science of the Truth is the Vedanta in which are

blended together the different existent views of life. The Vedanta is

neither a sect nor a creed, but the science of the Absolute Reality,

the only life-giving science, the only solace to the intelligent

mankind.

 

The boldest proclamation of Vedanta is that man is in essence

infinitely Divine, that everyone is bound to succeed sooner or later,

that all are bound to recover themselves in the Infinite Life Divine.

The ideal of the Vedanta is not merely a universal brotherhood nor

merely living a united and happy social life in the world of

differentiated individuals, but the being of the Absolute Essence of

the Highest Divinity which is the Life, Source and End of the

Universe. The Vedanta is the master-technique of transmuting the many

into the Undivided One. It means Experience Whole and existing as the

birthless and deathless Infinite. This is the greatest heritage of

India, this is the greatest treasure that India has and this is the

greatest gift that India can offer to the world. This is the zenith

of culture and civilization, this is the highest knowledge that man

can ever attempt to acquire, this is the final fruition of the best

of human aspiration.

 

The awe-inspiring greatness of India rests mainly upon the bedrock of

Absolute-Experience, of Truth-realisation, or a poised awareness of

the Infinite here on earth, in this life, in the environment of the

dance and pageantry of finitude, relativity, objectivity. As the

dwelling place of the Rishis, the Sages, the Men of God-Vision, India

enjoys in the estimation of the world a unique prerogative.

 

All the grand ideals of world's great religions that have moulded the

characters of men, the loftiest tenets of ethics and morality that

have raised human beings to the magnanimous height of supreme

perfection and all the sublime truths of spirituality that have made

man divine and have shaped the spiritual life of nations and of the

saviours of mankind, first took their origins in India, the land of

those daring spiritual individuals who entered into the heart of the

Absolute and proclaimed truths which have eternal values. With its

spiritual horizons lit up with the deathless light of the Upanishadic

wisdom, India is essentially a land of spiritual wealth, and its

history is the history of religious experience. The Goal of India is

Self-realisation or the attainment of God-Consciousness through the

express manifestation of a spirit of renunciative detachment and

through a dynamic divine knowledge. If men are but to understand the

significance and the richness of this spiritual inheritance of India,

and make the spirit of this heritage part and parcel of their daily

awareness, they all would be veritable gods on earth.

 

(Source: Essence of Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda)