Save Your Culture

[Guest guest]

SAVE YOUR CULTURE

 

By Stephen Knapp

 

After touring the area of Northeastern India in late 2002, I can more easily understand the value of the culture of that region, and the need to protect and preserve it.

 

The people of the area are some of the nicest, simplest, and most friendly people I have ever encountered. They show a high degree of respect toward others and for life itself. It would be a real shame if that should ever change.

 

On the other hand, I come from America, a land rich in facility, technology, wealth, business, global enterprises, and the desire in most everyone to climb the social ladder to increasingly better positions and higher pay.

 

It also has the high crime, the pollution, as well as the selfishness, competition, lack of respect for others, and the impersonal relationships that come with such an environment. Now I ask you, is this real progress? Is this the kind of progress we should be making?

 

We have to have the foresight to see that opulence without culture and time for introspection leads to a shallow life, even a meaningless life. These days in the West, people look for culture, but since America is so young, we have to look for it outside our borders.

 

And people in the East may be surprised that Westerners often look toward them for culture. Westerners often look to the East for a deeper understanding of life, of who they are, and to learn what is their connection with the universe and God.

 

There are more Westerners than ever before who practice yoga, study Eastern philosophy, and who are adopting dietary and health disciplines of the East for improving their lives. So the people of India should not think that giving up their own culture or spiritual path to adopt some new technology or Western religion is going to be the answer to their problems. That is not the way it works.

 

As I have traveled all over India, I have seen that one of the prime reasons for many of the social and environmental problems of the country is not the culture itself, but it is the distancing or even a disconnection from it.

 

Remaining fixed in the true principles of your own indigenous culture, which has gone on for thousands of years, is often the means of keeping social problems to a minimum. But that also means staying educated in what your culture actually teaches and handing that knowledge down to younger generations so that it never becomes lost.

 

This is something that is important to understand. The Vedic and indigenous cultures of India are the oldest in the world. They have been developed by some of the wisest sages the planet has ever seen.

 

This culture has given some of the most profound knowledge and deepest insights and understanding of life that mankind has ever known. It has existed for thousands of years. So who is to tell me that it is not good enough to last for another several thousand years?

 

Who is to tell me that its philosophy is backward or not up with the times? So do not accept another person coming to tell you that your own culture is not good enough, especially a foreigner who mostly wants you to convert to his Western form of religion, or who tells you that what you do is evil. Since when did it become evil? Who is he to tell you this when his own culture or religion does not have the many years of development as your own?

 

So don't think you have to give up your own culture in order to meet someone else's definition of being "civilized". Some of these Western religions have been a part of some of the worst wars and most brutal carnage in world history.

 

And so many are divided into numerous sects, like the Catholics and the Baptists, both of which fight with each other for converts. This should make you ask, how can unity come from such disunity? How can social harmony come from such disharmony?

 

So do not give up your culture or feel that you must convert to some other religion. Do not be tempted to think that your ways are backward. As my own spiritual master, Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta would say, and as Vivekananda has also said, that we only need to combine the Western technology with the Eastern philosophy.

 

This is what helps makes for a progressive society. Develop yourself on all levels, the material and the spiritual. Simply broaden your education. You don't have to give up your culture or spiritual path to do that.

 

Merely learn and keep up with the modern developments in the world, and use the latest technology when it's applicable to further enhance your development in your economy, ecology, agriculture, transportation, communication systems, construction of roads, and in your health systems.

 

But there is no need to become so influenced by it that you should feel that you need to give up your own culture, your own values, or your own spiritual practices.

 

So what should you do??

 

1. Practice your own culture and spiritual path. Be proud of what it offers.

 

2. Learn it deeply. Stay familiar with your traditions, rituals and holy days, and pass it along to the youth.

 

3. Make sure the traditions and stories are recorded in books so they can be studied, remembered, practiced, and handed down through the generations.

 

4. Compile the books of prayers, songs, and stories and make them available to everyone.

 

5. Make the proper and benevolent images to worship where and when it is helpful.

 

6. Construct centers for prayer, worship and practice.

 

7. Congregate together regularly, and be supportive toward one another.

 

8. Celebrate and enjoy your festivals, and know and discuss the meaning of them so it is not lost.

 

9. In a friendly way, encourage others to participate as the basis of a united community.

 

10. Recognize the need to be pro-active in working to keep your culture. Join or form the organizations that help you preserve and protect your culture.

 

11. Establish the means or campaign that will assist people to realize the value of their own culture.

 

12. A group should be established in every village, if possible, to encourage people in this way.

 

13. Come together in groups regularly to participate in and discuss your culture, and develop the ways of defending it, especially when it is under attack or threatened by conversion groups who are under an alien influence.

 

14. Also recognize the need for true harmony and unity, and know that a true religion or spiritual path does not create disharmony by dividing people into the "sinners" and the "saved" simply because of following different religions or spiritual systems.

 

15. There must also be the maturity to balance the old traditions with any new modifications.

 

India's civilization is the oldest in the world. It has withstood the test of time when others have crumbled. It has weathered the onslaught of many foreign invaders and has still retained its religious and spiritual values, along with its original customs and traditions, which are unique in nature.

 

It is the Eastern culture which has shown itself to be the most respectful and tolerant, allowing all forms of deities and spiritual paths to remain, and permitting the expression of every form of spirituality.

 

It has given liberty of individual thought as the ultimate freedom, which other tyrannical civilizations have denounced, which has also brought about their own demise. Therefore, you have every reason to value what you already have and continue practicing it.