THE CULTURE OF INDIA AND THE WEST

The word ‘culture’ encompases a variety of subjects such as history, art, music, religion, science, morality, politics, commerce, mythology etc. The mix of these various strands which are interrelated and interconnected, produce what we call a culture of the whole civilisation or a nation.

Therefore, although the culture is existential and palpable it cannot be defined by a single sentence although we all know what we mean by it. Even if we cannot exactly define it, we can measure its value by a definite criteria.

The true happiness in this world is the right terrestrial aim of man. However where does true happiness lie? It lies in the finding and maintenance of a natural harmony of spirit, mind and body. A culture is to be valued to the extent to which it has discovered the right key of this harmony. To what extent it has organised its expressive motives and movements towards that aim. The civilisation and its culture must be judged by the manner in which all its principles, ideas, forms, ways of living, work to bring that harmony out and to what extent that harmony is achieved. Moreover, it should be able to maintain and develop that harmony further. Hence, this is the basis on which we will judge the value of the Western and Indian cultures.

All of us are influenced by the culture in which we are borne and brought up. Although there can be some or at times vast variations from an individual to individual in the same culture, naturally or unnaturally, with or without our consent, we are exposed to the culture around us and we absorb it right from childhood onwards, and it is also largely responsible for moulding our personality, our beliefs, our value judgements, outlook towards life etc.

The cultures are never static they change over a period of time. We are vaguely aware of the changes that are occurring in our culture even if they are imperceptible whilst they are taking place. However, by a glance at the history of the culture over a long period of time, it is possible to detect gradual as well as major movements and shifts in the cultures of different civilisations and nations.

Therefore it is worth initially to have a brief look at the history of the Western and Indian cultures, as the cultural past of the nation is rooted in the psyche of the nation and therefore its influence in the present is still strong.

In the West the two ancient great western civilisations were Greek and Roman. The Greek civilisation from approximately 1600BC to 30BC laid the foundations of the European civilisation which gave us poets l like Homer and his epic poems ‘Illiad’ and ‘Odyssey’, it started Olympic Games, gave birth to democracy and theatre, produced philosophers such as Socrates and Pluto. This followed by Roman civilisation between 30BC and 500AD which strengthened the roots established by the Greeks.

There then followed the early middle ages and middle ages, during which there was not any noteworthy substantial forward cultural movement except that Christianity took firm hold in Europe with many good and some bad practices that were followed under the umbrella of the Christian religion, which was eventually reformed and modernised by the fifteenth century renaissance and the reformation. However, a noteworthy point is during this period Western architecture advanced and flourished and produced many impressive and beautiful churches and palaces.

Finally in the period between 16C and 20C the world saw considerable globalisation of the European culture, primarily through the spread of European empires during that period.

Looking at the history of the Indian culture, which I am sure you are aware, which started with the earliest settlements in the Indus valley better known as Mohenjodaro and Harrappan civilisation dating back to around 3000BC. Although that civilisation was well advanced for its age the real cultural development took place after the Aryans arrived in India between 2000 and 1500BC. From that period up to 324BC, which is known as the Vedic period, the Indians laid the foundations of their civilisation and culture and developed the highest philosophical and spiritual thought political ideology and management of the society. But the most important contribution of this period, which captured the imagination of the philosophers and Rishis of those times, threw up the classic literature in the form of the Vedas and Upnishads which to date have a strong grip on the Indian psyche.

In 400BC Buddha established Buddhism which took root in India and spread eastwards, and with the arrival of Alexander in 325BC in India, there was some interaction between the Greek and Indian culture. The next cultural resurgence had to wait till the Gupta period between 320 and 550AD. The Gupta period was noted for peace, stability and prosperity which allowed Indian arts, music, sculpture, science etc to flourish until the Huns invaded India and destroyed Gupta empire. The Indian arts and architecture developed between 600 – 1100AD examples of which are the temples and Stupa buildings by Harsha in northern India and Chola in southern India. There followed from 1100-1526 a sultanate regime, which subsequently gave way to Mogul empire. During the Mogul empire, to certain extent, Muslim culture took hold in India and some of the classical buildings such as Taj Mahal were built in this period. By and large the cultural and religious tolerance has been the hallmark of the Indian culture. Assimilation and accommodation rather than destruction and displacement was the norm generally followed by Hindu Kings of the past.

What I presented to you as a very brief potted history of the two cultures is not meant to be an end in itself but it is put forward to see what inference we can draw from this history which will better enable us to understand the current cultures and the likely development of the cultures in the future.

If one analyses the history of the two cultures in some depth it becomes clear that there is a consistent but a different strand that runs through each culture, which forms the backbone of that culture. These distinctive strands were established in each culture right at the beginnings of the two civilisations, i.e. in the West by the Greeks and Romans and in India by the Rishis of the Vedic period.

The Western culture is predominantly material, mental and intellectual based on logic and reason with the aim of achieving maximum good for the majority of the members of its society. The emphasis is laid on improving the material wellbeing generally by efficient economic management and developing arts, science, technology, politics etc. with reason and intellect as its guiding principles.

Whereas Indian culture is predominantly spiritual. It is based on the core principle that the mental man develops himself to a point of conscious morality or ‘dharma’. Then further elevates and develops the sattwic mind until the increasing manifestation of the sattwic or spiritual portion of the vehicle of mind enables the individual mental being in man to identify himself with the pure spiritual consciousness beyond mind. India’s social system is built upon this conception her philosophy formulates it, her religion is an aspiration to the spiritual consciousness and its fruits. It admits progress but this is spiritual progress.

With this background in mind we must look at the two cultures in their current form. As I said before the cultures are not static they change for two reasons. One is the influence of the other cultures and in the current global village environment this is well manifested all around us. The second is the changes occurring within the culture due to internal malignant or benevolent pressures for change. These changes can be subtle and imperceptible or they can be rapid and obvious. I consider due to the phenomenal rapid advancement in technology we are currently experiencing the latter.

There is a rapid and obvious change taking place in the Indian culture and not always necessarily for the better. The rich spiritual strand within the Indian culture has been somewhat dulled over the centuries and fallen into a state of comparative inactivity, sleep, contraction. Hence, when it is faced with a much more waking active and creative civilisation of the West the Indian culture has been impelled by the very instinct of life to take over these ideas and forms to enrich itself even to imitate and reproduce it and thus accrue the advantages of these forces and opportunities. The Indian culture at present is thus being influenced heavily by the West.

The West is influencing not just India but many other parts of the world. Quite a few of them do not have a long and credible history of tenable culture of their own and therefore they are easily swallowed up in the Western culture. Whereas, in spite of Indian culture having been developed a very long time ago on the highest universal principles, it is increasingly in danger of slavishly following the Western culture. There are indeed a lot of good and useful things that Indian culture can take on board from the Western culture as the spirit and temporal have to be perfectly harmonised for the spirit works through mind and body. However, the purely intellectual and heavily material culture cannot lead to the key to happiness which is the true measure of the value of the culture, which I alluded to earlier, as the finding and maintaining a natural harmony of spirit, mind and body. That is where the true happiness lies.

So how do we deal with the heavy influence of the Western culture without losing the main strand of the Indian culture which has historically made the Indian culture and its principles, unique and uplifting beyond the physical life alone. Many times I come across Indian reaction to Western culture in two extremes. One which considers all Western ways are the best and therefore to be adopted lock stock and barrel and slavishly imitate all good and bad features, particularly the bad ones, to make oneself in modern terminology look ‘cool’ with no or little regard to what is going on in and around you, in the nation at large and with complete disregard to the cultural history of the nation. The other extreme is to condemn the Western culture as morally corrupt and therefore bankrupt. This view arises mainly due to ignorance of the real Western culture and misconceptions simply based on hearsay and perhaps based on what is put forth in the popular media.

Such extreme reactions are clearly wrong. The truth lies somewhere in between. In order to benefit from the good aspects of the Western culture we need to be highly discerning. Even the good aspects of the Western culture cannot be imitated and imported in their exact same nature and form. Thus, Western ideas and practices which have a merit and are likely to benefit Indian material and economic well being and create a more efficient and managed society, have to be Indianised first and then adopted. By that I mean any change of form adopted must be a new expression or self creation developed from within, i.e. it must be characteristic of the spirit and not servilly borrowed from the embodiments of an alien nature. If we merely imitate the strain of utilitarian materialism of the Western culture we will do ourselves, and our culture immense disservice and harm.

Thus, we are fast approaching a fork in the road of our cultural future. One road leading towards wholesale imitation of the Western culture, particularly its drawbacks and not its positives, through ignorance and misconceptions resulting in gradual but definite dilution and at times elimination of the rich heritage of Indian culture. The second road at the fork is leading towards discerning choice of adopting after Idianisation of those worthy facets of Western culture in our culture and reviving strongly and knowledgably the spiritual foundation of the Indian culture in its original glory.

At this watershed moment it is very important that we make the right choice and thereby make sure that we don’t press the self destruct button on the Indian culture which alone, with assimilation of some useful features of the Western culture, can provide the key to that cultural supreme aim of finding and maintaining a natural harmony of spirit mind and body wherein lies the true happiness and the salvation of the human race.
- Prakash Sharma

The Purpose of Education

Through the series of Kashec Lectures, via. Medium of, ’Thinkers Forum’, Mr. Prakash Sharma, delivered the second lecture on the Topic, ’The Purpose of Education’

on 9^th Oct. 2010 in Pune India.

Attributing the present purpose of education primarily to, gaining literacy coupled with academic knowledge@ 3 R’s i.e. Reading, Writing & Arithmetic, further acquiring subject wise academic knowledge, he pointed out that, accumulated academic knowledge being vast cannot be grasped fully by students in few years of academic education.

He further stated that this resulted in, cramming in of knowledge as much as possible. But for few, majority students seldom succeed in this, and hence do not get good grades, qualifications & are denied social stability, status etc.in the society.

They get stamped as failures and are permanently doomed to low self esteem & confidence. Therefore, the purpose of education as per current scenario, viz. achieving good grades, getting a well paid job works for the very few, but does not server this intended purpose for the as majority of students, hence warrants a review.

The discussion further covers the need for a limited curriculum, imbibing in students the idea of self education, and training them in all the important Life Skills.

The life skills include, - Ability to think independently, clearly, unencumbered by prejudices, dictates of authorities & traditions, - Developing emotional intelligence, - Ability to fulfill your commitments, acquiring good communications skills, - putting your point of view effectively & purposefully, - importance of maintaining respect & dignity etc.

The discourse points out that the real purpose of the academic education to be, - to generate interest, encourage curiosity & sow seeds for enhancement of knowledge, so the desire of wanting to learn rather than having to learn is prevalent.

The thought provoking discussion ultimately sails through, how to face, ups, & downs, errors, regret bad lucks etc. in life & live happy & fulfilling life, touching on the importance of spirituality in life.

The full text of the lecture is released on the blog for discussion through electronic media, for reading, comments, views etc. A thorough discussion through above formats, it is hoped, will finally lead to the formation of an action group to effect change on so lively a topic of paramount importance to the well-being of the society.

To have your say please go to the following blog.--

The Pursuit of Knowledge

The Prime reason for the growth of the human race and its civilisation is the growth and accumulation of knowledge.
This growth of knowledge has brought immense benefits to the individuals as well as to the societies, but its not without drawbacks as well.
Two fold definition of knowledge:

1. The body of facts acquired by study.
2. The act and process of knowing.

Over emphasis of the first part in our education system and later on in the work ethics, curbing curiosity and not allowing and encouraging pro activity and creativity which is the kernel of the second part.

The driving forces in the pursuit of knowledgge are necessity, curiosity, utility and knowledge for knowledge's sake.

What is generally known as knowledge is the knowledge of understanding the nature's processes operating in the universe.

All so called invensions are not invensions at all as all the nature's processes are pre existent, all we do is unveil them. We do not invent new processes.

The knowledge of the physical world and the mental workings is of use and important in its own field, but there is yet higher metaphysical knowledge which forms the main aim in the pursuit of knowledge.

This is the knowledge of the truth of consciousness, truth of cosmos and the truth of ourselves in the cosmos. The knowledge of our real selves not the body, life and mind as currently we are inclined to believe, but instead the spark of the Divine Being in us.

Why is this knowledge necessary? This question can be answered by another question. If you do not pursue and gain this knowledge what contribution have you made towards your own destiny as well as the destiny of the human race in your life?

The destiny being the manifestation of Divinity in life on earth.

There is process of spiritual evolution taking place separate to the Darwinian evolution. It is the evolution of the self imposed nescience of the Divine to the superconsciousness - the fully evolved Divine consciousness.

Man is at semi evolved state and can make a conscious effort to get to the next stage ie from current mental man to spiritual man.

Tools for making this progress are not the usual faculties of reason, logic and intelligent will, as they can not grasp the infinite by the tools of the finite. The tools required here are intuition reaching the surface consciousness un contaminated by ignorant desire and ego for which purification of the instruments of body, life and mind are necessary.

The popular understanding of intuition is not applicable here. What we call intuition in common parlance is merely a gut feeling prone to error and actually contaminated by desire, ego, wishful thinking etc. It will be quite dangerous to rely entirely on it and act accordingly. What is meant by intuition here is pure ray of infallible knowledge reaching the surface consciousness, uncontaminated, from the depths of one's being or from the higher planes of consciousness.

Another tool is to strive to get the direct experience of the 'Self' by quietening the surface mind and life and gain knowledge by identity.

All of this is achievable because it already exists within us.

The human race is heading towards a complete manifestation of Divinity on earth.

THE PURSUIT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THAT DIVINE SPARK WITHIN US IS THE GOAL AND AIM OF LIFE ON EARTH FOR THE MANKIND.

-Prakash Sharma.