The problems we so often face in human relations may be traced to our identification with the puny ego that attaches itself to the body-mind complex. Our real self is vast and ethereal, harmonic and serene without a tinge of pettiness or propensity towards inferior gain. We have lost our bearings in life because we have lost sight of this, our true self. The struggle is on towards regaining the lost empire but through the desert-sand of dead habit, the labyrinth of the labour of ignorance. Hopelessly we are caught in the snares of Maya, primates of primeval ignorance. And we are trying to settle out things, render justice, find solutions to intractable problems of life and the world around, what folly, what a futile endeavour when we are not even conscious of who we are!
This problem of existence was tackled in ancient India by the Rishis of yore who after searching for truth in the external universe understood that truth lay elsewhere and turned their attention inward into the life of things, the very mind of man. Centuries of external investigation led to some brilliant discoveries in the field of science and mathematics but left the ancient seers without a clue as to the solution of the riddle of existence. It is then that some of them ventured to explore the human mind itself in their bid to unravel the mystery of life. And truth was not come by overnight. Ages of investigation, mental recording of facts revealed and held in the memory of successive generations built up an oral tradition unparalleled in human history which culminated in the discovery of the truth of truths (satyasya satyam), the science of the Self. The Vedas graduated to the Vedanta or the Upanishads, the forest retreats became the ancient Indian universities and the students of Nature became the Rishis, venerated even today as some of the best minds that ever trod the face of this beautiful Earth.
Who were these Rishis? What did they discover? How did their discoveries give shape to the destiny of India? But more of that later. For now, adieu!
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