MY MOTHERLAND ... 33
We have to mend our ruptured civilisation by giving birth to a million heroes and heroines who will have none of the weaknesses as taint the current lot. Our civilisation has always been such where we have produced heroes by the hordes in every generation for ages, and it is only in modern times that we have been thus subverted to this commercial degenerate form that has converted us into a nation of urban dancers in desirous delight.
Culture is one and degradation thereof in its pretentious pursuit another. If our heritage is to be neglected and abject westernisation in all its decadent modes and mores adopted by way of blind imitation, then we will not survive long as a people. Heroism and holiness are the hallmark of a thriving civilisation and the one that holds steadfast on to it, survives the ravages of time and endures in its expansive attributes whose spiritual influence in turn protects it from decay even as it spreads its wings to pervade the world around. Such has been the saga of age-old India and if we are to attempt turning the national vessel around to an ulterior material end, we are either going to be rebuffed by our rural people who, as yet, hold the reigns of civilisation despite their poverty and apparent weakness to fend for themselves in material terms, or we are going to ruin the course of our national evolution that has stood its ground for ages. The latter cannot be for history testifies to the failure of all such attempts in the past and, if the former is our inevitable end, then it is better to revert to our national ways of renunciation and service, as succinctly formulated by Swami Vivekananda, and retrace our steps back to our spiritual roots whence a fresh advance unto unfolding future horizons may be effected. But for all this, heroism is the key, the heroism of the spirit that can withstand the temptations of the times, the call of the flesh and the delights of the senses to forge the citadels of civilisation on ancient foundations which nothing earthly can undo.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Guru Tegh Bahadurji, the ninth Sikh Guru, holding audience along with son, the future tenth and last Guru of the Sikhs, Gobind Singhji, then a child.
We have to mend our ruptured civilisation by giving birth to a million heroes and heroines who will have none of the weaknesses as taint the current lot. Our civilisation has always been such where we have produced heroes by the hordes in every generation for ages, and it is only in modern times that we have been thus subverted to this commercial degenerate form that has converted us into a nation of urban dancers in desirous delight.
Culture is one and degradation thereof in its pretentious pursuit another. If our heritage is to be neglected and abject westernisation in all its decadent modes and mores adopted by way of blind imitation, then we will not survive long as a people. Heroism and holiness are the hallmark of a thriving civilisation and the one that holds steadfast on to it, survives the ravages of time and endures in its expansive attributes whose spiritual influence in turn protects it from decay even as it spreads its wings to pervade the world around. Such has been the saga of age-old India and if we are to attempt turning the national vessel around to an ulterior material end, we are either going to be rebuffed by our rural people who, as yet, hold the reigns of civilisation despite their poverty and apparent weakness to fend for themselves in material terms, or we are going to ruin the course of our national evolution that has stood its ground for ages. The latter cannot be for history testifies to the failure of all such attempts in the past and, if the former is our inevitable end, then it is better to revert to our national ways of renunciation and service, as succinctly formulated by Swami Vivekananda, and retrace our steps back to our spiritual roots whence a fresh advance unto unfolding future horizons may be effected. But for all this, heroism is the key, the heroism of the spirit that can withstand the temptations of the times, the call of the flesh and the delights of the senses to forge the citadels of civilisation on ancient foundations which nothing earthly can undo.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Guru Tegh Bahadurji, the ninth Sikh Guru, holding audience along with son, the future tenth and last Guru of the Sikhs, Gobind Singhji, then a child.
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