India of course is the land of spiritual epicenter, but what exactly does that mean? It is worthwhile knowing about the land both for the people having traces to this land as well as for others.
Whatever I am about to say applies to a large extent to all native civilizations except that there is something more special about India that has made it sustain its culture and practices to the original best even today.
Take for example food that people eat. India has the most number of cuisines in the entire world. If you are a traveller who tastes the food around the world, an entire life is not sufficient enough to taste all the different cuisines in India. For all practical purposes everybody in India is a vegetarian. If at all some people eat non-vegetarian food, they hardly have one non-vegetarian meal in about 3 weeks time at an average and not more than that. I can tell this having a first hand experience growing up as a non-vegetarian until I left eating non-vegetarian food about 12 years ago. This shows the sensibility of Indians to keep the environment sustainable and sensitivity towards the life of animals. Today we hear about the German Environment Minister banning non-vegetarian food in all official functions. Still I bet the average meat consumption in that country would be several times more than that in India.
If you talk about consumption of energy, India still consumes 500-1000 kg of oil equivalent per capita compared to close to 10000 kg of oil equivalent per capita by USA. Although several statisticians would attribute this difference to the economic development aspect of a country, I would question that. Do you consider burning the natural resources making it extinct which we still have no way to manufacture from nothing and clearly dependent on what is actually available as a limited quantity, any indication of a developed nation? This is totally absurd. India culturally has always been a pioneer in using renewable energy and using every opportunity to reuse than use and throw. This again shows the level of sensibility and sensitivity towards the natural resources that are available in limited quantities.
Let us take the behaviour of people. In spite of having such a big population, India remains a largely peaceful and the largest democracy in the world. Many developed countries in the world today are suffering from either the extremity of violence which they try to control by force, or deep depression in spite of having quite a good economic condition. India on the other hand redefines the aspect of coexistence in spite of an enormously varied culture, language, religion, economic conditions, education and aspirations. This is fundamentally possible because of a deep rooted culture and wisdom of this land and nothing else. Whatever was done to this land from the last 600 years by the external rulers, nobody could take away this aspect of unity in diversity from the depth of every Indian. Sensibility towards family and society and emotional sensitivity are I would say trademarks of every Indian.
Take the case of scientific advancement and contribution to the subject of Mathematics. Indians have always known that earth is spherical several thousands of years before it was known to the rest of the world. The sanskrit name for earth is "Bhoogola" which literally means "Earth that is spherical" and this term has been in use for several thousands of years. Everybody quite well acknowledges now that Aryabhatta invented the number zero which is so fundamental to Mathematics. Talking about Technology, In the epic literature of Ramayana, there are several references to the Aeroplane (Pushpaka Vimana) and Vaimanika Shastra talks about technical details about fuel used, aeronautics, avionics, metallurgy and mentions about 120 different models of planes and this was written at least 10000 years ago. The ancient scientists (otherwise known as Rishis) were quite sensible as to who they can pass the deep knowledge to. It was passed on only to qualified students so that they can further expand the science and use the technology sensibly without causing any disastrous effect to the world. And of course the scientists were quite sensitive to the effects of technology on environment.
Let us take the advancements in the field of Architecture. In spite of the rulers from outside India having destroyed numerous Architectural marvels and tried side constructing along the walls of existing monuments (Ram Janmabhoomi and Krishna janmabhoomi for example), still India remains a land filled with most number of Architectural wonders. Thanjai Periya Kovil built during the Chola period is one of the largest temples in India. The Architectural excellence was so much that the Indian Kings built Ankor Wat in Cambodia which is at present the largest religious monument in the entire world! These huge religious monuments are also known to be the energy centers constructed in a manner to draw and direct the subtle cosmic energy into the structure so that people who visit benefit from that. This again shows the great intentions and sensibility of the Architects and a great sensitivity to even be able to sense the cosmic energy!
I want to talk about the History of India a little bit here. I feel a great injustice has been done in the last few centuries to completely distort and misrepresent the Historical heritage of India as a land. Unfortunately even the independent India embraced the same colonial narration without digging deeper into the History. But there are enough documented evidences pointing to the historical existence of India as a Land and Culture with a great and advanced civilization several thousands of years ago. It now is only a matter of the present day Historians and Indologists with the help of a willing government to unearth all these evidences and give a brand new narration which will tell the truth as it was. I am sure the whole world will benefit learning about the sensibility and the sensitivity with which the people of the past in this land lived and contributed.
Art is a form in India that was never separate from the General Living. It was an integral part of everybody's life be it singing, dancing, music, painting, carving, pottery, etc and it was never considered a property of the rich few unlike in other parts of the world. Every bit of the living included art as its expression. Art is a surely a way to measure the cultural growth of any country. In that respect it is always quite evident that India had reached its pinnacle in its artistic expression several thousands of years ago and has been continuing on that journey even until today. No country even today has these many forms of dances, music and singing. And the refinement in each of these is immeasurable. Clearly it requires an enormous sensitivity to even be able to perceive the art form. And the people in India have always been quite sensible even in selecting the materials used to create the art forms.
India had also reached the pinnacle of Culture and Language. These two were always connected in India. India has the largest number of dialects as a nation and surely every dialect is connected with a certain cultural marvel. Be it the way people dress, the food they eat and the societal norms they follow everything has a vocabulary in the Language they speak and write. The respect that was given to women was supreme and there are certain cultures in India even today who follow matriarchal system. The sensibility towards women power has been quite evident and sensitivity towards people's cultural expression is so powerfully celebrated and expressed in innumerable literatures.
Education is a field that India has always been number one throughout the history. It is an undeniable fact that various princes and princesses from around the world were sent to Indian universities of the past to learn from. Nalanda and Takshashila are great examples of this. The system of education was so perfect that whoever had gone through the system would always come out as an expert in their own field unlike in today's world where people coming out of the system still need to go through some amount of training from respective industry in order to be any productive. The faculty and the whole system of education was so sensible towards producing only experts and no mediocres. The sensitivity towards the cultural and religious differences within the universities were so great that supreme forms of debates had evolved. For example whole nation is aware of the way Sri Adi Sankara used to debate travelling throughout India The best part of these debates was that the audiences always enjoyed the feast of knowledge and however different their viewpoints were, people who debated always respected and celebrated their differences.
India's Wealth is the very reason for the number of external looters having occupied the land and exploiting it to the core. The rulers were so barbaric that for instance even while leaving the country the British is known to have taken back ships of gold from this land. At one point India's contribution was upto 40% to the world GDP. Even with this type of economical advantage, India never conquered any part of the world by force unlike several middle eastern and western countries. India always demonstrated a Great sensibility by leading the way on how to sustain growth and economic supremacy. At the same time, it was always sensitive to people around the world and it is very evident with the way even businesses were conducted in the past by Indian Business leaders.
Health is one area where India is THE LEADER even today. While every other systems of health science and medicine in the world revolves around curing a disease, Indian systems of medicine always looked at disease as just a symptom of a larger problem and always had a wholistic view in order to address the root cause of the problem. This is why it is very common to see that the medicines administered to the same disease might different from one subject to another which might puzzle people following other systems of medicine. Health is not just a state where the subject is experiencing an "absence of disease", but a measure of how close is the subject to his/her own self. The word for health in Sanskrit - Swastha - means exactly that. This clearly shows the amount of sensitivity towards attaining health and the sensibility of the Medical community towards bringing a wholistic system of medicine.
Religion in India has always been projected as a subject of controversy by certain elements within the country and abroad. This is very unfortunate. In reality India is the only nation in the whole world where there is representation of every religion of the world. There are even some religions which originated from outside India and now only practised in India as it was destroyed in its place of origin - an example is the religion of zoroastrianism. People have always celebrated the differences in religious practices and celebrations themselves! India is the only country where Hindus even celebrate Christmas and Christians celebrate Deepavali and the list goes on. One is astonished to hear the fact that the mortal remains of St Thomas who is one of the twelve disciples of the Jesus Christ who visited India still remains in the city of chennai. If only Jesus was born in India I can assure that his remains would have remained until today. It is also astonishing to note that all Religious practices that are done to this day in India are very well aligned to the nature - be it the timing of festivals with the seasonal changes and the methods of celebration with Havans that has caused immense benefits to the environment. The Indian ancestors were always sensitive to the effects of the religious practices and so sensible and intelligent to device such forms of worship that are never heard of in other parts of the world.
Lastly I don't want to leave out the area of Spirituality where India is overwhelmingly considered a clear leader and remains the land that guides anybody and everybody to attain their respective spiritual goals. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar always talks about the clear difference between Spirituality and Religion. Whereas the latter focusses on the outer rituals and traditions which are way different in different religions, the former which is considered the core part of any religion is something that is common across all religions of the world. Quite often people misunderstand Spirituality and end up building several concepts around it. Spirituality simply deals with upliftment of the Spirit that every individual is made up of. It is the spirit that drives anybody to achieve anything in the world which is why we often refer to an individual who is very enthusiastic as somebody having high spirit. All the human values like compassion, forgiveness, sincerity, etc are natural expressions of the spiritual wealth inside an individual. This is why one of the missions of the organization started by Sri Sri named "The Art of Living" is to bring a Transformation in the society by strengthening individuals by teaching them how to get rid of stress through breathing practices and Sudarshan kriya (One of the most powerful breathing practices that exists today). In essence, India as a land has always demonstrated the sensibility of guiding the entire world in the area of spirituality and has always been sensitive to the various states of one's mind and delivering the knowledge of spirituality accordingly to the individuals.
India has always remained and always will remain as a land where sensibility and sensitivity prevails over everything else in all walks of life. It is my sincere prayer that the whole world looks towards India not as a competition, but as an inspiration to learn and benefit from its historical richness and the spiritual wealth which is the very basis for the much needed human values in the present world.
I want to talk about the History of India a little bit here. I feel a great injustice has been done in the last few centuries to completely distort and misrepresent the Historical heritage of India as a land. Unfortunately even the independent India embraced the same colonial narration without digging deeper into the History. But there are enough documented evidences pointing to the historical existence of India as a Land and Culture with a great and advanced civilization several thousands of years ago. It now is only a matter of the present day Historians and Indologists with the help of a willing government to unearth all these evidences and give a brand new narration which will tell the truth as it was. I am sure the whole world will benefit learning about the sensibility and the sensitivity with which the people of the past in this land lived and contributed.
Art is a form in India that was never separate from the General Living. It was an integral part of everybody's life be it singing, dancing, music, painting, carving, pottery, etc and it was never considered a property of the rich few unlike in other parts of the world. Every bit of the living included art as its expression. Art is a surely a way to measure the cultural growth of any country. In that respect it is always quite evident that India had reached its pinnacle in its artistic expression several thousands of years ago and has been continuing on that journey even until today. No country even today has these many forms of dances, music and singing. And the refinement in each of these is immeasurable. Clearly it requires an enormous sensitivity to even be able to perceive the art form. And the people in India have always been quite sensible even in selecting the materials used to create the art forms.
India had also reached the pinnacle of Culture and Language. These two were always connected in India. India has the largest number of dialects as a nation and surely every dialect is connected with a certain cultural marvel. Be it the way people dress, the food they eat and the societal norms they follow everything has a vocabulary in the Language they speak and write. The respect that was given to women was supreme and there are certain cultures in India even today who follow matriarchal system. The sensibility towards women power has been quite evident and sensitivity towards people's cultural expression is so powerfully celebrated and expressed in innumerable literatures.
Education is a field that India has always been number one throughout the history. It is an undeniable fact that various princes and princesses from around the world were sent to Indian universities of the past to learn from. Nalanda and Takshashila are great examples of this. The system of education was so perfect that whoever had gone through the system would always come out as an expert in their own field unlike in today's world where people coming out of the system still need to go through some amount of training from respective industry in order to be any productive. The faculty and the whole system of education was so sensible towards producing only experts and no mediocres. The sensitivity towards the cultural and religious differences within the universities were so great that supreme forms of debates had evolved. For example whole nation is aware of the way Sri Adi Sankara used to debate travelling throughout India The best part of these debates was that the audiences always enjoyed the feast of knowledge and however different their viewpoints were, people who debated always respected and celebrated their differences.
India's Wealth is the very reason for the number of external looters having occupied the land and exploiting it to the core. The rulers were so barbaric that for instance even while leaving the country the British is known to have taken back ships of gold from this land. At one point India's contribution was upto 40% to the world GDP. Even with this type of economical advantage, India never conquered any part of the world by force unlike several middle eastern and western countries. India always demonstrated a Great sensibility by leading the way on how to sustain growth and economic supremacy. At the same time, it was always sensitive to people around the world and it is very evident with the way even businesses were conducted in the past by Indian Business leaders.
Health is one area where India is THE LEADER even today. While every other systems of health science and medicine in the world revolves around curing a disease, Indian systems of medicine always looked at disease as just a symptom of a larger problem and always had a wholistic view in order to address the root cause of the problem. This is why it is very common to see that the medicines administered to the same disease might different from one subject to another which might puzzle people following other systems of medicine. Health is not just a state where the subject is experiencing an "absence of disease", but a measure of how close is the subject to his/her own self. The word for health in Sanskrit - Swastha - means exactly that. This clearly shows the amount of sensitivity towards attaining health and the sensibility of the Medical community towards bringing a wholistic system of medicine.
Religion in India has always been projected as a subject of controversy by certain elements within the country and abroad. This is very unfortunate. In reality India is the only nation in the whole world where there is representation of every religion of the world. There are even some religions which originated from outside India and now only practised in India as it was destroyed in its place of origin - an example is the religion of zoroastrianism. People have always celebrated the differences in religious practices and celebrations themselves! India is the only country where Hindus even celebrate Christmas and Christians celebrate Deepavali and the list goes on. One is astonished to hear the fact that the mortal remains of St Thomas who is one of the twelve disciples of the Jesus Christ who visited India still remains in the city of chennai. If only Jesus was born in India I can assure that his remains would have remained until today. It is also astonishing to note that all Religious practices that are done to this day in India are very well aligned to the nature - be it the timing of festivals with the seasonal changes and the methods of celebration with Havans that has caused immense benefits to the environment. The Indian ancestors were always sensitive to the effects of the religious practices and so sensible and intelligent to device such forms of worship that are never heard of in other parts of the world.
Lastly I don't want to leave out the area of Spirituality where India is overwhelmingly considered a clear leader and remains the land that guides anybody and everybody to attain their respective spiritual goals. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar always talks about the clear difference between Spirituality and Religion. Whereas the latter focusses on the outer rituals and traditions which are way different in different religions, the former which is considered the core part of any religion is something that is common across all religions of the world. Quite often people misunderstand Spirituality and end up building several concepts around it. Spirituality simply deals with upliftment of the Spirit that every individual is made up of. It is the spirit that drives anybody to achieve anything in the world which is why we often refer to an individual who is very enthusiastic as somebody having high spirit. All the human values like compassion, forgiveness, sincerity, etc are natural expressions of the spiritual wealth inside an individual. This is why one of the missions of the organization started by Sri Sri named "The Art of Living" is to bring a Transformation in the society by strengthening individuals by teaching them how to get rid of stress through breathing practices and Sudarshan kriya (One of the most powerful breathing practices that exists today). In essence, India as a land has always demonstrated the sensibility of guiding the entire world in the area of spirituality and has always been sensitive to the various states of one's mind and delivering the knowledge of spirituality accordingly to the individuals.
India has always remained and always will remain as a land where sensibility and sensitivity prevails over everything else in all walks of life. It is my sincere prayer that the whole world looks towards India not as a competition, but as an inspiration to learn and benefit from its historical richness and the spiritual wealth which is the very basis for the much needed human values in the present world.
1 comment:
Ramu, Sensitivity and Sensibility in India is a long call. The Government cannot change People. Rather it has to fall in line with People's aspirations or otherwise in a Democracy, the Government will vanish. Tolerance had been the Hallmark of our country and unfortunately, that same aspect had caused our downfall innumerable times. But the beauty of Tolerance is that we may be down at a point of time, but never out. We are destined to rise again after every fall.
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