| Swami Vijnanananda Saraswati It has always been a deep concern for those in love with the Hindu Traditions and Scriptures, that there has been a slow and systematic erosion of the institutions and environments that had facilitated its sustenance. This love, for some, emerged out of a simple affection or a deep-seated regard while for others emanated from a deep sense of understanding and insight of the wisdom that prevailed in this part of the world since time immemorial. India, being as rich as it was—what we have always read, understood, and imagined—was always a prey for the petty aspirants all across the globe. That is exactly the reason why there have been continuing attacks on India since early days, and even now, only their forms have changed. While making a historical study of the causes and the fall-outs of these events, we could identify elements—individuals or communities—who led the onslaught. However, still, just as the student of science makes certain presumptions based on the environment around and conclusively derives the analysis, similarly, seeing the way the social dynamics has been working [more comprehensively—with detailed reports since the days of Vivekananda, till now], I feel that positive and negative have always co-existed in the society. Just as, within the individual, there is a continuous process of birth-growth-death of organic elements within, and if the individual is not strong enough, he will not be able to stand the continuing assault of the extraneous infections and germs that keep attacking our body and the body will fall prey to it; similarly, the society has to be internally strong enough to be able to stand the external enemy. Somewhere down the line, we tend to put the blame on others—who, as I feel, have merely been instruments in the hands of nature for this state of ours, since the real enemy was always within. The Vedas have always stood for Collective Knowledge—as we say that the Vedas are Apaurusheya—they are not authored, but the cosmic knowledge that has manifested in the mind field of the Seers. This process of collective participation has not been seen elsewhere. Yet, we must acknowledge that while the greatest of the sages were striving to take the human cognitive level to higher echelons, surely there were enough charlatans who somewhere were taking advantage of being from the category of twice-born. That is exactly the reason why there have been imbalances in the society. However, we culturally had not been so discriminative as we were made out to be at a later point of time—by the pundits who took advantage of having parroted a few letters. The best example of this lack of discrimination was the total acceptance of Sage Valmiki (who wasn’t a Brahmin by birth) and that the society was so open that they accepted growth wholeheartedly and never tied people to a set frame—as in the case of Ratnakara the dacoit. Similarly, at a relatively later stage, we have been basking under the glory of institutions like Takshashila and Nalanda, which eventually got destroyed for various reasons. Yet, the fact remains that we failed to create many more such institutions when the need arose. Where is the basic problem? Probably, we have not only failed in creating vibrant institutions, we have also miserably faltered in creating a living relationship with the life of the common man—where he couldn’t relate to the need of these traditional concepts on a day-to-day, rather, a moment-to-moment basis. This is where people like Swami Vivekananda, and the contemporary saints and spiritual leaders played a vital role in revitalizing the whole system. What was common with all of them was the fact that they all felt the need to add the element of a modern scientific approach, of making things more tangible and allowing people to have a broader and probably at times, more skeptical approach so as to prove things in more logical and cognizable terms than the vague concepts like experiential sciences and the lack of measurability. This also brought a larger segment of people within the fold. I have personally known people like Swami Satyananda [of Munger fame] or read of Swami Rama, who allowed experiments on them in their Yogic states so that people understand and comprehend the necessity to practice these in daily life and reap their benefits. And finally, it is this approach that is seeing a revival of all these sciences and studies, despite the apathy of the establishment in the land where these precious jewels have existed. Ironically, with most of the ved pathshalas that are running in our countries, our students are only learning how to make the correct pronunciations and intonations, which is good, but rarely do we find anybody doing a deeper research and playing a role to contextualize these Vedic insights in the modern-day scenario—probably a vision of some upstart, somewhere in the West! Action Plan I feel that there is a need for more and well-networked [integrated] autonomous educational institutions to come up which will encourage interdisciplinary studies and research. Just as there are institutions that are doing deeper studies on the impact of yogic processes in daily life—medical, psychological, and their applications; or there are institutions that are creating good quality Ayurvedic students—still the saddest part is that there is very little interdisciplinary study and research. Why can’t a student pursuing a degree in medicine be upgraded on Ayurveda and the techniques thereof, or a student of Ayurveda be upgraded in modern diagnostic techniques to confirm his traditional analytical skills? Similarly, why can’t a student of physics be exposed to the Vedantic philosophy or any other aspect that he feels interested in, and a lot more multidimensional search will manifest? In a way, probably—it is a shift in the paradigm that is the need of the hour when concerning the revival of traditional sciences. This alone can help us take the traditional concepts and knowledge to a higher plane. [We at Swachetana Foundation are doing exactly this. Despite lack of funds, it is true that our operative scale is small, yet we are striving hard. We have managed to have surgeons who have given up surgery and dedicated themselves to more academic study of Ayurveda, trying out processes from Ayurvedic concepts for detoxification programs, using other tertiary techniques followed in the West as supportive processes for yogic and Ayurvedic processes. Similarly, when it comes to blending traditional yogic techniques with learning procedures, we have succeeded where years of psychiatric help have failed.] Second, there is a genuine need to take things on a level of mass participation. This is where we have a concept of organizing youth festivals in colleges and universities, where we’d be encouraging the students to have seminars and paper reading sessions on applying these traditional knowledge schemes in their field of studies. Simple or complex, these papers will create an interest and tendency to get into the framework of researchers. Even if we manage to inspire 0.1% of the participants from these grass-root levels to do serious work, there will be a nice reap of fresh minds happening slowly. That is what is needed—to take the knowledge to the people and make people feel responsible towards maintaining the sanctity of ancient wisdom. It’s a slow process, but it will happen one day. However, I feel the need to caution that this process should happen at the widest possible network in India and not allow research work outside. Only then the initial lead can be maintained. That is where the Vedic ethos—in terms of individual search and collective learning—will be blended with the spirit of Yoga, which is none other than Harmony—within and all around us. The only thing is that we need to open our hearts and stop all infighting to grow as one whole rather than segregated beings and sects—that has been the root of all our disasters. About the author: Swami Vijnanananda Saraswati has been conducting Vedantic study circles, yoga retreats, and workshops for private groups and corporate sponsors. He can be e-mailed at vijnanswami@gmail.com. |
– Swami Vijnanananda Saraswati
