Satyopanisad

[Guest guest]

Swami! Many speak of culture? What is the value of culture?

 

Culture is very important because your life and its value depend on it. Culture

is a way of life. Culture enables you to experience divinity in your life.

Culture helps one to know unity in diversity. Without culture, man becomes a

demon. He falls down in stature and ultimately ruins himself.

 

You know that sea water is saline or salty. Human life is like a vast sea. God's

grace is like sunlight that falls on the sea. The seawater because of the heat

of the sun becomes vaporised. This is the vapour of bliss that settles as clouds

in the sky to fall down to the earth as rain. It is the rain of love. The

seawater is salty but the rainwater is sweet. Why? Where does the difference

lie? Seawater is refined by sunlight. So also, our life must be cultured and

refined. The value of life will then go up. A piece of iron worth less than a

rupee can be made into a beautiful costly watch after it is processed and

refined. This is due to the culture it has undergone. So long as a boulder

remains itself, it is bound to be neglected. But, once it is in the hands of a

sculptor, chiselled and hammered, and shaped into a beautiful Krishna idol; it

starts receiving respect and worship. Why? It is only culture that makes all the

difference. A boulder, once trodden by everyone underfoot and now in the form of

an idol, occupies a place at the altar in a temple and is worshipped everyday.

This is the value that culture confers.

 

Without culture, one develops a foolish view of life finding diversity in unity.

For example, take a needle. It stitches pieces of cloth into a garment. The

needle stands for culture. But scissors cut the cloth into pieces. This is the

condition in the absence of culture.