MY MOTHERLAND ... 26
We must advance our country without westernising it. The city-bred have been polluted. The masses living in the countryside must be preserved from this western contamination. This terrible loss of individuality, this gross imitation of decadent modes and manners of the West, this inordinate ability to pick up the vulgar from elsewhere is a sign not of advancement but of inner erosion.
A culture that cannot stand on its own does not survive for long. Its slow transformation through alien influence is its gradual death. So many civilisations in the past history of humanity have thus flourished for a while, then flickered unto extinction in spirit while remaining alive in body as a transformed civilisation with radically different imposed or absorbed culture bearing no resemblance or continuing link with the mother civilisation. Such has been the tyrannical history of man and what we call modern world civilisation is a conglomeration of such cultural impositions on erstwhile indigenous civilisations, through conquest and conversion. Ours is the only surviving civilisation of antiquity which maintains its continuum, its continuing links with its earlier phases and is evolving unto this day. No other ancient civilisation of glory has survived the ravages of time other than our Hindu civilisation and, as such, it must be preserved with care and continuing culture. This we owe it to ourselves, this we owe it to the world. But in the process we must not lose ourselves in the trackless desert-sand of alien absorption of a decadent kind that would leave us stranded to sink in the abyss of this baseless sand. This we must prevent by all means and in this lies our real nationalism.
The Greek conquest, the conquest of the Sakas, Huns, Kushans, Bactrians, Scythians and the rest of antiquity threatened for a while our Vedic culture but could not permanently overwhelm it, such was our strength in combating alien influence. Golden fusions may have resulted from such cultural contact as are evident in the Gandhara art and in the Greco-Buddhist art, to name but two principal art forms that left their indelible mark on our evolving civilisation, but the central theme of our civilisation, that of the Sanatana Dharma, was never allowed to peter despite all such transforming variations. Thus, we survive unto this day as a civilisation with roots dating back millenia, a culture seeking sustenance from sources located in prehistoric times. Must we lose it in this abject absorption of decadent western mores and manners?
Cross-cultural contact and consequence is inevitable in a world of migratory men, in a domain of dominance where the mighty impose their will on the meek and power, despite pretensions to piety and pristine principles, seeks to subdue all beneath the 'chariot wheels' of conquest. To exclude all except one's own has been the dominant theme of conquering humanity thus far and this follows from the animal principle of evolution, that of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. Thus have been destroyed civilisations by the cartloads, laid by the wayside under the sword of tyranny. Ours has survived by its inherent strength but not before suffering significant damages, incalculable losses about which we need to be aware.
Christianity rose two thousand years ago and one of the first countries to harbour it was India where St. Thomas supposedly had come to proselytise his Master's faith thirty years after the Crucifixion. India offered land and hospitality to him for every new faith seems to the Indian to be another route to the same Divine who is seated enthroned in the sanctum of the heart. But what has been its long-term consequence? The bulk conversion of the North-east and Kerala and the progressive proselytising throughout the country today with foreign powers working in tandem to undermine the integrity and sovereignty of India, the aggression against their principal adversary, Vivekananda, and the preaching of hatred, conniving, cunning and camouflaged, against the very spiritual heritage of our motherland? Christianity in India has not all been educating and serving the people of India from compulsions of humanity but underneath has ever run the sinister design of saving souls, the soul of the heathen of lesser understanding, idolatrous and caste culture, which the Baptism alone can deliver from ignorance and sin. Despite the tallest pretensions to preaching peacefulness and common welfare, the very ideal of saving the souls of men through conversion, that is the global agenda of historical Christianity of all denominations with the Catholic Church wielding its maximum clout in this regard, reeks of violence and vice which we must as a nation and as the world's oldest civilisation and civilising culture resist. This is our dharma today and this will remain our dharma for ages to come till humanity is civilised at last to comprehend the import of the ancient Indian dictum, एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति (Existence Absolute is One, sages call it variously.)
There have been threats to our culture, to our dharma and to our civilisation down the ages. Barbarous tribes from beyond the borders of Aryavarta have repeatedly made inroads into India and threatened the fabric of our synthetic spiritual culture. When Brahmanical tyranny over the masses had reached its height and real spirituality plummeted to its nadir, up aros ethe Buddha to rescue the Sanatan Dharma from such ritualistic abuse.Throwing open the doors of the Spirit to all and sundry, Buddha came as the first deliverer of the masses and democratised the spiritual traditions of India, so much so that emissaries of the Dharma went way beyond the borders to carry the light of civilisation to distant races living in the dark. Thus, India's message reached the remotest corners of the globe known to man universally then and race after race drank of the fountain of our spiritual culture to rise invigorated therein. A look around Asia even today from Sri Lanka and Myanmar of the subcontinent to Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Japan will tell you the story of India'grand contribution to the civilising of the peoples of the world and that, too, without a blow delivered to any in speech or in deed, the message percolating and penetrating the subliminal consciousness of sleeping nations like the invigorating milk of the mother's breast that nourishes the sleeping babe to quicken it to wakeful activity thereof. Non-violence was the way, enlightenment the mode and preservation and flourishing of local culture the consequence as country after country accepted India as their spiritual preceptor. No imposition, all peace.
Unfinished and evolving ...
Written by Sugata Bose
We must advance our country without westernising it. The city-bred have been polluted. The masses living in the countryside must be preserved from this western contamination. This terrible loss of individuality, this gross imitation of decadent modes and manners of the West, this inordinate ability to pick up the vulgar from elsewhere is a sign not of advancement but of inner erosion.
A culture that cannot stand on its own does not survive for long. Its slow transformation through alien influence is its gradual death. So many civilisations in the past history of humanity have thus flourished for a while, then flickered unto extinction in spirit while remaining alive in body as a transformed civilisation with radically different imposed or absorbed culture bearing no resemblance or continuing link with the mother civilisation. Such has been the tyrannical history of man and what we call modern world civilisation is a conglomeration of such cultural impositions on erstwhile indigenous civilisations, through conquest and conversion. Ours is the only surviving civilisation of antiquity which maintains its continuum, its continuing links with its earlier phases and is evolving unto this day. No other ancient civilisation of glory has survived the ravages of time other than our Hindu civilisation and, as such, it must be preserved with care and continuing culture. This we owe it to ourselves, this we owe it to the world. But in the process we must not lose ourselves in the trackless desert-sand of alien absorption of a decadent kind that would leave us stranded to sink in the abyss of this baseless sand. This we must prevent by all means and in this lies our real nationalism.
The Greek conquest, the conquest of the Sakas, Huns, Kushans, Bactrians, Scythians and the rest of antiquity threatened for a while our Vedic culture but could not permanently overwhelm it, such was our strength in combating alien influence. Golden fusions may have resulted from such cultural contact as are evident in the Gandhara art and in the Greco-Buddhist art, to name but two principal art forms that left their indelible mark on our evolving civilisation, but the central theme of our civilisation, that of the Sanatana Dharma, was never allowed to peter despite all such transforming variations. Thus, we survive unto this day as a civilisation with roots dating back millenia, a culture seeking sustenance from sources located in prehistoric times. Must we lose it in this abject absorption of decadent western mores and manners?
Cross-cultural contact and consequence is inevitable in a world of migratory men, in a domain of dominance where the mighty impose their will on the meek and power, despite pretensions to piety and pristine principles, seeks to subdue all beneath the 'chariot wheels' of conquest. To exclude all except one's own has been the dominant theme of conquering humanity thus far and this follows from the animal principle of evolution, that of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. Thus have been destroyed civilisations by the cartloads, laid by the wayside under the sword of tyranny. Ours has survived by its inherent strength but not before suffering significant damages, incalculable losses about which we need to be aware.
Christianity rose two thousand years ago and one of the first countries to harbour it was India where St. Thomas supposedly had come to proselytise his Master's faith thirty years after the Crucifixion. India offered land and hospitality to him for every new faith seems to the Indian to be another route to the same Divine who is seated enthroned in the sanctum of the heart. But what has been its long-term consequence? The bulk conversion of the North-east and Kerala and the progressive proselytising throughout the country today with foreign powers working in tandem to undermine the integrity and sovereignty of India, the aggression against their principal adversary, Vivekananda, and the preaching of hatred, conniving, cunning and camouflaged, against the very spiritual heritage of our motherland? Christianity in India has not all been educating and serving the people of India from compulsions of humanity but underneath has ever run the sinister design of saving souls, the soul of the heathen of lesser understanding, idolatrous and caste culture, which the Baptism alone can deliver from ignorance and sin. Despite the tallest pretensions to preaching peacefulness and common welfare, the very ideal of saving the souls of men through conversion, that is the global agenda of historical Christianity of all denominations with the Catholic Church wielding its maximum clout in this regard, reeks of violence and vice which we must as a nation and as the world's oldest civilisation and civilising culture resist. This is our dharma today and this will remain our dharma for ages to come till humanity is civilised at last to comprehend the import of the ancient Indian dictum, एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति (Existence Absolute is One, sages call it variously.)
There have been threats to our culture, to our dharma and to our civilisation down the ages. Barbarous tribes from beyond the borders of Aryavarta have repeatedly made inroads into India and threatened the fabric of our synthetic spiritual culture. When Brahmanical tyranny over the masses had reached its height and real spirituality plummeted to its nadir, up aros ethe Buddha to rescue the Sanatan Dharma from such ritualistic abuse.Throwing open the doors of the Spirit to all and sundry, Buddha came as the first deliverer of the masses and democratised the spiritual traditions of India, so much so that emissaries of the Dharma went way beyond the borders to carry the light of civilisation to distant races living in the dark. Thus, India's message reached the remotest corners of the globe known to man universally then and race after race drank of the fountain of our spiritual culture to rise invigorated therein. A look around Asia even today from Sri Lanka and Myanmar of the subcontinent to Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Japan will tell you the story of India'grand contribution to the civilising of the peoples of the world and that, too, without a blow delivered to any in speech or in deed, the message percolating and penetrating the subliminal consciousness of sleeping nations like the invigorating milk of the mother's breast that nourishes the sleeping babe to quicken it to wakeful activity thereof. Non-violence was the way, enlightenment the mode and preservation and flourishing of local culture the consequence as country after country accepted India as their spiritual preceptor. No imposition, all peace.
Unfinished and evolving ...
Written by Sugata Bose
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