Bhaktisandesam / Age of the Spiritual Superpower

[Guest guest]

Hari-Om

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Can India Guide the Global Society ?

 

 

India has high hopes to become the Superpower of the the 21st

century. To make India's dream come true, a new creativity and

vitality is necessary that honors the country's venerable traditions.

But is this possible when there are deep concerns about the decadence

of spirituality and moral values in the Indian society?

 

It is time we reckoned that the Indian tradition originated 3,000

years before the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions became extant. The

Rig Veda, one of the oldest books in the world boldly proclaims:

 

" That which is the One Truth the seer teach in many different ways

....May noble aspiration come to us from every side. "

 

This bedrock of Indian pluralism gave rise not only to the many

different sects of Hinduism, but also to Buddhism, Jainism and

Sikhism—perhaps the largest diversity of spiritual teachings in the

entire world. This reflects an open quest for truth and a free

flowering of all human potentials beyond any restriction to a

particular name, form or institution, and embraces art and science as

well as religion and metaphysics. But today, India does not seem to

be the land of the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas and Upanishads, of

Buddha, Gandhi and Sri Ramakrishna.

 

'Vamadeva Shastri' Dr David Frawley notes that over the past 50

years, India has failed to discover its real roots. " Indians have

forgotten their own profound modern sages like Swami Vivekananda and

Sri Aurobindo who projected modern and futuristic views of the Indian

tradition. While Westerners come to India seeking spiritual

knowledge, Indian intellectuals look to the West with an adulation

that is often blind, if not obsequious. "

 

Spiritual leaders are of the opinion that the Indian society is in

the throes of perhaps one of its worst crises in history. Acharya

Mahapragya said it is an irony that a land of fabled spiritual and

cultural wealth today has lost all spiritual bearings and has

succumbed to a culture of spiritual ignorance. " The excesses of this

century will reach their climax sooner or later and our people will

return to understand what went wrong. The virtues of ahimsa and

restraint will stand out as self-evident against a backdrop of the

failings of our presently misdirected civilization. We must look

forward to a future when all of humanity will work together to

develop a spirit-centered society " , says the Acharya.

 

One vital question, however, remains: Whether all the spiritual

knowledge we have gained from the saints and the religious conviction

that the gurus have inspired in us, all the nihilism that modern

science may offer and all the agnosticism that rootless existence

invites, together make us any better as children of the divine than

people were at the turn of the previous millennium. These, says

writer G N Devy, are similar questions raised by Martin Luther, Mira

Bai and Vivekananda in their times. " The legacy of questioning

Faith " , notes Devy, " is probably the greatest achievement of

religious philosophy over the last thousand years. "

 

One more question, spirituality has played its part in the past, but

will it be of any consequence in the new millennium? Many are of the

opinion that the form and nature of religion has to change keeping,

however, the vision of Truth and the values based on it intact.

According to Swami Tejomayananda there will be a kind of synthesis

among religions, giving birth to a new religion for all. " There were

masters who tried to bring synthesis among religions but they

succeded only in adding a new religion. We should understand the true

essence of religion as the oneness of the Self, and base all ethical

values on this understanding " , says the Swami.

 

Hitherto, spirituality was thought to be something devoid of fun. But

today, opines Sri Ravi Shankar Maharaj, " Spirituality has more to do

with love, compassion, caring, beauty, peace of mind, calmness and

creativity. The spirit is the basis of all the qualities that a human

being exhibits. A human being is not a machine, there is something

more the physical existence. That awareness of the spirit is

increasing day by day. "

 

Ethical principles are universal and come from human reasoning and

experience and from divine inspiration, and they uphold the

inviolability of the human being. According to Father Samuel

Rayan, " If only we are able to draw upon our spiritual heritage…can

we go forward to a future worthy of our past and of the promises of

the present. "

 

What India today requires is a new generation of thinkers who are

global in outlook but grounded in the practical spirituality of the

Yoga and Vedanta. India holds the spiritual power and the

evolutionary force of humanity that can lead the world. Dr David

Frawley feels only a spiritual superpower, which India has the best

potential to become, can properly guide the global society.

 

 

 

Jai Shree Krishna !