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Re: ARTICLE : The Mother on India's Spiritual Atmosphere
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: ARTICLE : The Mother on India's Spiritual Atmosphere
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From: Srinivasa Chakravarthy <srini@monod.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu>
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Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 13:07:35 -0600
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu, soc.culture.indian, soc.culture.indian.kerala, soc.culture.indian.karnataka, soc.culture.indian.marathi, soc.culture.indian.gujarati, soc.culture.indian.delhi, soc.culture.indian.jammu-kashmir, soc.culture.tamil, soc.culture.bengali
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Organization: Baylor College of Medicine
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References: <ghenE0Kor6.n4z@netcom.com> <ghenE0qtqy.1BM@netcom.com> <ghenE0spKC.8vu@netcom.com>
Michael Tandy wrote:
>
> In article <ghenE0qtqy.1BM@netcom.com>, sengupta@sunyit.edu says...
> >
> > Look at the spiritual India
> >today and tell me in what ways has she demonstrated its spiritual presence
> >above and beyond the rest of the world. Look around and tell me how many
> >countries today sport the distinction of excelling India in corruption
> >and violence.
> We hesitate not in killing each other to defend our
> >religious sentiments even though on our walls we sport slogans like
> >"Satyameba jayate" etc.
> >
> I've always been amazed by a very curious phenomenon. My
> invariable experience has been that while most Indians verbalize
> extreme pride in their cultural and spiritual traditions, they also
> display fundamental and monumental ignorance of these, and very few
> ever seriously participate in either. I don't know what they're
> proud of, and neither do they, or so it seems. Someone please
> enlighten me. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is the impression I have.
Strange that that little passage from the Mother created such disparate
reactions: one spitting Fire on all Indian spirituality, the other
shedding pitiful Tears about the crashing downfall of the same.
I believe both are unnecessary. Let us look at
them one at a time.
The Fire:
> >Is this spiritual India? Wake up and see how we really are, not what
> >the propaganda proclaims. If anything, by now we have succeeded in
> >terminating Indian spiritual heritage totally.
> >
And the Tears:
> > I agree with you here. You've said it quite succintly.
> >
"Indian heritage" has not terminated. On the contrary,
India experienced the coming of a great number of spiritual figures,
and religious luminaries, of stature and glory surpassing the
proverbial Kanchenjungha, all crowding the brief moment of a
mere two centuries: Sai Baba of Shirdi (1838), Sri Ramakrishna (1836),
Mother Sharada Mayi (1953), Swami Vivekananda (1963),
Sri Aurobindo (1872), The Mother (1878), Ramana Maharishi (1879),
only to name some of the prominent figures. More recently we
have Sri Satya Sai Baba (1926), whose devotees are present in nearly
every nation, and Mata Amritanandamayi(1953), who is a sounding proof,
not only that Indian spiritual soil has not stopped producing new
fruit, but continues to do so, almost with a vengeance, convincing
an unwilling humanity with its sublime harvest. I have left out
an innumerable list of TRUE Gurus and saints dotting the Indian soil,
else my to-be-brief reply will turn into an Hieratic Encyclopedia!
And what have they come for, why such an overcrowding? If we take the
clue from the Gita that "yadaa yadaahi dharmasya glaanirbhavati ...
sambhavaami", they seem to have come when they are needed the most. This
century is simply a bloated experiment in materialism, to see how much
space it can occupy, to see how much it can stamp out all other ideals
from human thought, to see if a society completely cast in its mould
can live without choking to death. The results are clear. Materialism
is not a sole-sufficing religion. It needs something else to give it its
place, its true significance, and life. Only a stronger, truer and
more intense spirituality can conquer it, quell it, and again graciously
accepting it, show it its true place. It is the promise and need of
such a truer and greater spirituality that these spiritual people
came to show.
But yes, I agree. The present India hardly reflects that greater
spirituality. Computers, jeans, and arriving, at any cost, in the US,
are the deepest ideals. The country is filled with the din of
business-related activity. Political corruption, human rights and
sexual abuse, AIDS, caste system, Babri Masjid, arranged marriages (!),
child labor, and God-knows-what - all those things that western media
is never tired of shouting about - are all there. The orthdox complain
that women have forgotten Bindi, and are wearing shorts! In some places
religion is taking on a militant and political shape. Now where is
th greater spirituality you dream about in all this, you will ask.
The Fire asked and the Tears answered:
> >
> And you know what is in the root of all these?
> >
> I sure do:
> nunam pranmattah kurute vikarma
> yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti
>
> When someone becomes convinced that s/he is the material body,
> then the demands of the body/mind complex (along with all of it's
> corollaries, such as family, nation, etc.) become of paramount
> importance, and one will not hesitate to do anything to attain one's
> aspirations. In other words, 'self-preservation is the first law of
> nature,' self-aggrandizement is the second. Western, nay, modern
> society is based on this principle. It has now infected the entire
> world, including India, although the seed for this tendency was
> already there and was sprouted as well.
India has deliberately neglected its spiritual
> responsibility out of cowardice and rascaldom.
Here's my answer:
We said that the coming of so many spiritual personages marks the
beginning of a greater spirituality that can counter the swelling
wave of materialism, and give it its true place. But for such an advent
to succeed it must first come into contact with what it is up against.
How can you conquer an enemy you have never met, or bring to its knees
a beast you have never sighted? For spirituality to prove itself to be
a perfect antidote to materialism, it must first allow itself to be
attacked by it, perhaps even overpowered by it temporarily,
and them come out as a Victor, with the beast subdued following
close at the heels. For this experiment to be possible India
must let in the tide of materialism. She must take up and foresee
every possible point of conflict between spirituality and materalism
and resolve it in a detailed way with the power of her Knowledge.
For she has this Knowledge. She gave the example of Janaka,
a king busy in his dealings with the world, yet perfect in soul.
She must prove to the world that it is still possible to live in the
modern world of computers, stock markets, parliaments, and freeways,
and yet be spiritual in every fiber. But if India fails in this
delicate and difficult experiment, if her spirituality cannot overrun
the invading materialism, it is then that her spirituality loses its
prestige and uniqueness, but not before. The experiment is just
beginning. The attackers of her culture must wait and look on
patiently for some time.
Miracles might still happen!
Srinivasa Chakravarthy
