Understanding Hindutva
‘As the most beautiful image carved by man was not the god, but only a symbol to help towards conceiving the god; so the god himself, when conceived, was not the reality but only a symbol to help towards conceiving the reality’. Our ancient ‘philosophical’ writings like Gita also lays stress on ethical and moral principles in statecraft and life in general. Without the foundation of religion there can not be true happiness and society cannot hold together. Hindutva not only has spiritual connotation but comprises a beautiful philosophy of life.
Hinduism, as a faith, is vague, amorphous, many sided, all things to all men. It is hardly possible to define it, or indeed to say definitely whether it is a religion or not, in the usual sense of the word. In its present form, and even in the past, it embraces many beliefs and practices, from the highest to the lowest, often opposed to or contradicting each other. Its essential spirit seems to be to live and let live. Mahatma Gandhi has attempted to define it: ‘If I were asked to define the Hindu creed, I should simply say: Search after truth through nonviolent means. A man may not believe in God and still call himself a Hindu. Hinduism is a relentless pursuit after truth. Hinduism is the religion of truth. Truth is God. Denial of God we have known. Denial of truth we have not known.’ Truth and non-violence, so says Gandhi.
Hindutva in its viraat darshan is liberal, liberating and brooks no ill will, hatred or violence among communities on any ground. It’s is an integral understanding of entire creation, showing the way both to the Here and Hereafter. It emphasizes the inseparable relationship between manís material and spiritual needs. Itís a symbol of love that transcends artificial boundaries of religion, race or cast and embraces the entire community. In its true essence, It’s a stridently assertive rational-humanist line of reasoning which can be described by the practitioners of this outlook as “Heenam Naashaayati iti Hinduhu” (Those who uphold righteousness and fight ignobleness are Hindus). Thus, far from being a narrow nationalistic doctrine, Hindutva is in its true essence, ‘a timeless and universal compilation of human wisdom’. Hence it is also called “Sanatana” which means, something that is “forever continuing”.
Two instances of Hindu Principles that symbolize the outcome of freedom of thought are the pronouncements made not today, but four thousand years back by unnamed rishis (Hindu ascetics) that, “This world is one family” (Vasudaiva Kutumbakam) and that “The Universal Reality is the same, but different people can call it by different names” (Ekam Sat Viprah Bahuda Vadanti). In these two proclamations made in ancient Hindu India, we see the seeds of globalization and freedom of thought, four thousand years before the world was to become the global village of today.
Great modern thinkers have taught us that the reason was superior to belief (Hegel); that God diminished man’s sublimity (Feuerbach); that religion was an ‘opiate of the masses’ (Marx); and there was no ‘future of an illusion’ (Freud) because ‘God was dead’ (Nietzsche). So, I turned for understanding the inspiration to the third goal of classical Indian life, to dharma or right conduct, rather than the transcendent goal of moksha. Dharma was secular while moksha was religious. Over time I have discovered, however, that a secular life based on the noble end of dharma cannot substitute the mesmerising power of moksha. Secularism is a noble but limited ethic ó I don’t think it can replace religion. In a similar vein, Habermas explains that many of our modern ideals, such as the intrinsic worth of all human beings that underlies human rights, stem from the religious idea of the equality of all men in the eyes of God.
Only those religions who can suspend the temptation of theological narcissism, the conviction that my religion alone provides the path to salvation are welcome in our rapidly changing, post-secular world. Tilak, while delivering speeches on national education in 1908 maintained: “We are not given such education as may inspire patriotic sentiments. Secular education only is not enough to build up a character. Religious education is also necessary because the study of high principles keep us away from evil pursuits.” Leaders and philosophers of our freedom movement had their vision of education system to be linked with the cultural heritage of the country. Vivekananda believed that for a ìqualitatively higher stage of societyî ideal of Indian social endeavour was necessary. While Tilak aspired for Dharmrajya, Gandhiji believed in Ramrajya. The BJS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay in post-independent India believed in integral humanism. If the vision of our national thinkers, who fought for freedom of the country, is taken into consideration, our educational system must have a spiritual dimension to materialistic pursuit. The pursuit of Dharm, Arth, Kama and Moksha in a balanced manner is possible only if the age-old education system in India is linked with modern and scientific education. About Sanskrit language, Prof. Max Muller of world fame said, , ìSanskrit is the greatest language in the world, the most powerful and the most perfectî Similarly, Sir W. Hunter was of the view that Grammar (Sanskrit) of Panini stands supreme among the grammars of the world. It stands forth as one of the most splendid achievements of human invention and industry. The Hindus have made a language and a literature and a religion of rare stateliness.î
Our Vedic philosopher Maharshi Gautam had rightly pointed out in his ‘Nyay Sutras’ that “the knowledge derived from observation, inference, comparison and testimony should objectively be verified by discussion, which usually leads to the enquiry of truth. Although Hindus are a majority in this country and followers of Hinduism are almost always Hindus still ‘Hindutva’ as a word does not explicitly belong to a Hindu. Neither is it necessary to be ‘Hindu’ nor to be ‘Indian’ to follow Hindutva, which is what that word implies. It teaches us that ‘the entire world of mortals is a self-dependent organism’.
source: Essays on Hinduism – By Karan Singh p. 69-71).
“The master principles upon which Hinduism is based are to be found essentially in the Upanishads, which represent the high watermark not only of Indian but of world philosophy. It is in these luminous dialogues that the great issues confronting humanity have been addressed in a manner that seems to grow in relevance as we move into the global society. ”
“The first and most basic concept is that of the all-pervasive Brahman — “Isavasyam idam sarvam yat kincha jagatyam jagat” (Whatever exists and wherever it exists is permeated by the same divine power.) While many philosophies have postulated unbridgeable dichotomies between god and the world, matter and spirit, the Upanishadic view is that all that exists is a manifestation without the light of consciousness behind it, and this, in a way, is the realization of the new science.
The second concept is that this Brahman resides within each individual consciousness, in the Atman. The Atman is the reflection of this all-pervasive Brahman in individual consciousness; but it is not ultimately separate from the Brahman. The concept of “Isvarah sarvabhutanam hriddese tishthati” (The lord resides within the heart of each individual) is the second great insight of the Upanishads, and the relationship between the Atman and the Brahman is the pivot upon which the whole Vedantic teaching revolves.
Another important Vedantic concept is that all human beings, because of their shared spirituality, are members of a single family. The Upanishads have an extraordinary phrase for the human race, ‘Amritasya putrah’ (Children of immortality), because we carry within our consciousness the light and the power of the Brahman regardless of race, colour, creed, sex, caste or nationality. That is the basis of the concept of human beings as an extended family — ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ — which is engraved on the first gate into our Parliament House.
“It is certainly true that Hinduism has provided the broad cultural and religious framework that has held India together despite its astonishing linguistic, ethnic and political diversity and divisions. Hinduism is as essential for an understanding of Indian culture and civilization”
Alan Watts (1915-1973) a professor, graduate school dean and research fellow of Harvard University, drew heavily on the insights of Vedanta. Watts became well known in the 1960s as a pioneer in bringing Eastern philosophy to the West.
“There is an unrecognized but mighty taboo–our tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we really are. Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy religions of the East–in particular the central and germinal Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. This hallucination underlies the misuse of technology for the violent subjugation of man’s natural environment and, consequently, its eventual destruction. It is rather a cross-fertilization of Western science with an Eastern intuition”.
“To the philosophers of India, however, Relativity is no new discovery, just as the concept of light years is no matter for astonishment to people used to thinking of time in millions of kalpas, (A kalpa is about 4,320,000 years). The fact that the wise men of India have not been concerned with technological applications of this knowledge arises from the circumstance that technology is but one of innumerable ways of applying it.”
It is, indeed, a remarkable circumstance that when Western civilization discovers Relativity it applies it to the manufacture of atom-bombs, whereas Oriental civilization applies it to the development of new states of consciousness.”
(source: Spiritual Practices of India – By Frederic Spiegelberg Introduction by Alan Watts p. 8-9).
“It was once customary to refer to these people of India and China as heathens….apart from Sufism, the Near East produced nothing to approach the high level of mystical and psychological philosophy attained in India and China.”
“Hinduism, therefore, is perhaps the most catholic of all religions, for it has not become so in the course of its evolution but was based on the principle of catholicity from the beginnings. Those who laid down the code of Manu made provision both for different mentalities and different vocations in the most through going manner; they showed an understanding of the social organism which in subsequent times has seldom been equaled…”
“It is almost certain, however, that Taoist Yoga was derived in great measure from India, and it is here that we must look for the greater wealth of information.”
(source: The Legacy of Asia and Western Man – By Allan Watts p.1-2 and 28-29 and 85).
Friedrich Majer (1771-1818) a disciple of Johann Gottfried Herder, an Orientalist found that:
” It will no longer remain to be doubted that the priests of Egypt and the sages of Greece have drawn directly from the original well of India,” that it is to ‘the banks of the Ganga and the Indus that our hearts feel drawn as by some hidden urge.”
And again:
“Towards the Orient, to the banks of the Ganga and the Indus, it is there our hearts feel drawn by some hidden urge – it is there that all the dark presentiments point which lie in the depths of our heart…In the Orient, the heavens poured forth into the earth.”
(source: On Hinduism Reviews and Reflections – By Ram Swarup p. 102).
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) German philosopher, poet and critic, clergyman, born in East Prussia. Herder was an enormously influential literary critic and a leader in the Sturn und Drang movement. He saw in India the:
“lost paradise of all religions and philosophies,” ‘the cradle of humanity,’ and also its ‘eternal home,’ the great Orient ‘waiting to be discovered within ourselves.’
According to him, “mankind’s origins can be traced to India, where the human mind got the first shapes of wisdom and virtue with a simplicity, strength and sublimity which has – frankly spoken – nothing, nothing at all equivalent in our philosophical, cold European world.”
Herder regarded the Hindus, because of their ethical teachings, as the most gentle and peaceful people on earth. Herder’s “Thoughts of Some Brahmins “(1792) which contains a selection of gnomic stanzas in free translations, gathered from Bhartrihari, the Hitopdesa and the Bhagavad Gita, expressed these ideals.
Herder pointed out to the spiritual treasures of India in search of which later German Sansritists and Indologists had devoted their lives.
(source: Johann Gottfried Herder’s Image of India (1900) – By Pranebendranath Ghosh p-334).
Troy Wilson Organ a professor at Ohio University and author of The Hindu quest for the perfection of man and Hinduism; its historical development, wrote:
“Hindu thought is not a philosophy. It is a philosophical religion… “Hinduism is a sadhana which seeks to guide man to integration, to spiritualization, and to liberation……The concept of reincarnation is the Hindu way of asserting that there are no temporal nor developmental limits to the perfecting. “Hindu thought is natural, reasonable, and scientific. It is a process, not a result – a process of perfecting man”. In the Hindu Monism (Advaita) God is not anthropomorphic being. He is All; He is not a despot or autocratic God.
(source: Philosophy of Hinduism – An Introduction By T. C. Galav Universal Science-Religion. Pg 123)
August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845).German Scholar and Poet who also learnt Sanskrit. The impulse to Indological studies was first given in Germany, through his book, ‘ The Language and Wisdom of the Indians’ which appeared in 1818. He wrote The Bhagavat-geeta, or, Dialogues of Krishna and Arjoon : in eighteen lectures.
“The divine origin of man, as taught in Vedanta, is continually inculcated, to stimulate his efforts to return, to animate him in the struggle, and incite him to consider a reunion and re-incorporation with Divinity as the one primary object of every action and reaction. Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the idealism of reason as it is set forth by the Greek philosophers, appears in comparison with the abundant light and vigor of Oriental idealism like a feeble Promethean spark in the full fold of heavenly glory of the noonday sun, faltering and feeble and ever ready to be extinguished.”
Schlegel edited to original text of the Bhagavad Gita, together with a Latin translation, and paid tribute to its authors:
“I shall always adore the imprints of their feet”
He noted in his book, Wisdom of the Ancient Indians, ” It cannot be denied that the early Indians possessed a knowledge of the God. All their writings are replete with sentiments and expressions, noble, clear, severely grand, as deeply conceived in any human language in which men have spoken of their God…”
(source: Proof of Vedic Culture’s Global Existence – By Stephen Knapp p. vii).
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) first prime minister of free India, was more than a deeply moral human being. He yearned for spiritual light. He was particularly drawn to Swami Vivekananda and the Sri Ramakrishna Ashram. The Upanishads fascinated him. Nehru called the Vedas as:
“The unfolding of the human mind in the earliest stages of thought. And what a wonderful mind it was!.” It is the first outpourings of the human mind, the glow of poetry, the rapture at nature’s loveliness and mystery.” A brooding spirit crept in gradually till the author of the Vedas cried out: ‘O Faith, endow us with belief’. It raised deeper question in a hymn called the ‘ The Song of Creation’.
“The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe.”
“I am proud of this noble heritage which was and still is ours, and I am aware that I too, like all of us, am a link in that uninterrupted chain which finds its origin in the dawn of history, in India’s immemorial past. It is in testimony of this and as a last homage to the cultural heritage of India that I request that a handful of my ashes be thrown in the Ganga at Allahabad (formerly known as Prayag) so that they may be borne to the vast ocean that bears on the shores of India.”
(source: The India I Love – By Marie-Simone Renou p.128).
Jawaharlal Nehru in his book – A Discovery of India wrote:
” The statue of Nataraja (dance pose of Lord Shiva) is a well known example for the artistic, scientific and philosophical significance of Hinduism.”
(source: A Discovery of India – By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 214).
A. E. George Russell (1867 – 1935) the Irish poet, essayist, painter, Nationalist leader, mystic, and economist; a leader in movement for cooperation among Irish farmers; editor The Irish Statesman 1923-30.
Russel paid an eloquent tribute to the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.
‘Goethe, Wordsworth, Emerson, and Thoreau among moderns have something of this vitality and wisdom but we can find all they have said and much more in the grand sacred books of India.”
“The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads contain such godlike fullness of wisdom on all things that I feel the authors must have looked with calm remembrance back through a thousand passionate lives, full of feverish strife for and with shadows, ere they could have written with such certainty of things which the soul feels to be sure.”
(source: A Discovery of India – By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 93).
Paul Deussen (1845-1919) a direct disciple of Arthur Schopenhauer, preferred to be called in Sanskrit, Deva-Sena was a scholar of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, has observed:
“Whatever may be the discoveries of the scientific mind, none can dispute the eternal truths propounded by the Upanishads. Though they may appear as riddles, the key to solving them lies in our heart and if one were to approach them with an open mind one could secure the treasure as did the Rishis of ancient times”
About Vedanta, he said : It is now, as in the ancient times, living in the mind and heart of every thoughtful Hindu.”
(source: Indian Antiquary (1902) – By Paul Deussen and reprinted in Outline of Indian Philosophy – 1907).
“God, the sole author of all good in us, is not, as in the Old Testament, a Being contrasted with and distinct form us, but rather…..our divine self. This and much more we may learn the lesson if we are willing to put the finishing touch to the Christian consciousness, and make it on all sides consistent and complete.”
(source: India And Her People – By Swami Abhedananda p.234).
” the Upanishads have tackled every fundamental problem of life. They have given us an intimate account of reality.”
“On the tree of wisdom there is no fairer flower than the Upanishads, and no finer fruit than the Vedanta philosophy,’ and he added,
‘The system of Vedanta, as founded on the Upanishads and Vedanta Sutras and accompanied by Shankara’s commentary on them—equal in rank to Plato and Kant—is one of the most valuable products of the genius of mankind in his researches of the eternal truth.’
(source: Paul Deussen’s address before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society on February 25, 1893).
Regarding the Cosmological hymn in the Rig Veda, he wrote:
” In its noble simplicity, in the loftiness of its philosophic vision it is possibly the most admirable bit of philosophy of olden times. .. .. .. No translation can ever do justice to the beauty of the original.”
(source: History of Philosophy – By Paul Deussen vol. I p. 119 & 126).
John Elignton ( ? ) author of A Memoir of A E Russell, wrote:
“The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads contain such godlike fullness of wisdom on all things that I feel the authors ‘Goethe, Wordsworth, Emerson and Thoreau among moderns have something of this vitality and wisdom, but we can find all they have said and much more in the grand sacred books of the East. The Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads contain such godlike fullness of wisdom on all things that I feel the authors must have looked with calm remembrance back through a thousand passionate lives, full of feverish strife for and with shadows, ere they could have written with such certainly of things which the soul feels to he sure.’
(source: A Memoir of A E Russell – By John Eglinton 1937 p. 20).
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