We Indians are unmatched at creating new ideas. We were the ones who solved many mysteries from Zero to Yog.
But we do posses another brilliant quality. That is, to institutionalize the whole idea, and (conveniently) forgetting the original idea.
Ex: The whole idea of democracy has deep roots in Indian history. Post independence, we accepted the Westminster democracy. In 65 years we have institutionalized it, and to a great extent successfully as well. There are elections being held periodically, power transfer is smooth and parties do have to accommodate public outcry. But the soul is lost. Unfortunately, Gandhiji's India does tolerate when a senior national leader declares he spent Rs. 8 Cr in the election. We also tolerate the people implicated in corruption, misuse of power and even sex scandals, to contest again, win and rule over us. That means we have a ritual of the democracy, not the soul.
Perhaps the root cause of this 'Ritualisation' lies in the way we are.
During the Ancient time, Indian religious thought was based on Vedas. They were deemed to have all the knowledge in the world. We did accept it and a great era of 'Ritualism' and stagnation began.
It took a Buddha to come out and rediscover the original truth and put it in new form. He opposed all sorts of rituals, giving us the path of salvation. That path has to be traveled alone, and by one's own act, without any rituals. He also told us 3000 years back to be one's own guide (अत्त दिपो भव् )
The forces of 'Ritualism' proved powerful again and the whole teaching of Buddhism was transformed into 'Ritualism' by Hinayana sect.
Rest, as they say, is history.
There are countless such examples why we tend to forget the soul and 'Ritualise' the whole idea.
Indian Democracy and Administration, by far, is the epitome of that 'Ritualism'. What do you call a system that requires a person to bring a 'Living Certificate' showing that he is not dead indeed! And what sort of people are we, for whom the whole system needs to be established?
Europe witnessed a fabulous phenomenon of 'Enlightenment and Renaissance' 13th century onward. What it did was to encourage 'Reason and Humanity' against the dogmas.
We, who were flourishing by the time, lost the tide of Reason and fell down to the dark trenches of 'Irrational Exuberance'
That's why, Dozens of former Prime Ministers, Presidents, National political leaders and athletes find it necessary to bow down to a proven thug disguised as a Baba, who has amassed fabulous wealth. We also tolerate a Godman accused of multiple sexual violations, and the protests against his arrest, when in the first place he is supposed to be practicing 'Brahmacharya'.
We behave so irrationally, and that too often even to count. Milk drinking Ganesha to Online Horoscope, there is no limit to our foolishness.
The worst part is we don't even acknowledge our foolishness. We disguise the irrationality under 'Faith, Belief and sometimes Complicit Ignorance'
Complicit Ignorance means even being aware of it, we choose not to pay attention to that.
The same Godman accused of Sexual Molestation, has not seen any considerable loss in number of followers.
The question here is not of having faith or believing in god. I believe that is a personal choice and everyone is free to exercise that without forcing someone else into that. My objection is to the blanket refusal of Indian mindset to critically look into their lives, faith, belief and most importantly their, our future.
We are just proud of our culture. How many would actually be able to define it?
Further, how many of them have bothered to study it?
In Maharashtra it is pretty common to evoke Dnyaneshwar/Tukaram.
But hey, have you read them? 9 out of 10 haven't.
Same goes with Ambedkar/Gandhiji/Shivaji and countless others. We keep on forgetting the soul, focusing only on the simplistic rituals. Its pretty easy to wear Khadi than to practice Gandhi's principles. Its very beneficial to keep saying 'जय भीम' rather than bothering oneself to read Ambedkar and Phule.
One of the great excuse of Indian mind says "चार किताबे क्या पढ़ ली, चले अकल सीखाने"
We don;t agree that the knowledge is something that one can learn. We want someone to teach it it to us.
This may not be a true analysis and I mean no disrespect. But the 'Bhakti Marg' of salvation has come indeed between the 'Dnyan Marg' and certainly is leading the 'Karma Marg' to inappropriate direction.
We oppose to Wendi Doniger for some obscene analysis of the Hindu gods. But we don't bother to answer them by studying and bringing the other side to light. We are happy to give a bullshit and lame duck excuse of 'Disrespecting the Belief' using a draconian Colonial provision of law. Do we say," Hey is it really so? If yes, let me see it. Let me check it out"
NO. We Don't.
Every society has contradiction and so do we. But we are known to resolve those contradictions and to establish the 'Samyaq Marg'.
What exists today is our refusal to accept that there are contradictions. If at all one accepts there are contradictions, we are not interested in resolving them. We insist of having our side to be the only side, to end the contradictions.
To substantiate, a fool Chief Minister (thankfully Former), who took oath, didn't anything to correct the wrongs in the system, rather he went on to demolish the existing one and impose his new version. And what a great way to do that, by protesting on the Rajpath ahead of the ceremony to celebrate India's Democracy!!
Can we really call ourselves the nation defined by Gandhiji/Vivekananda? There is not a single incidence when they approved or disapproved anything without the test of reason.
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was aware of our devotion to Ritualism.
That's why he must have wrote :
"Where the clear stream of Reason has not lost its way
Into dreary desert sand of dead habits"
We do have grand success in Scientific developments as a Nation. Its only a mirage at individual tempers.
Today we are again celebrating the National Science Day with a theme 'Fostering Scientific Tempers'
May this be a small step for us, the Indians, which lets work together to make a giant leap for Mankind...
But we do posses another brilliant quality. That is, to institutionalize the whole idea, and (conveniently) forgetting the original idea.
Ex: The whole idea of democracy has deep roots in Indian history. Post independence, we accepted the Westminster democracy. In 65 years we have institutionalized it, and to a great extent successfully as well. There are elections being held periodically, power transfer is smooth and parties do have to accommodate public outcry. But the soul is lost. Unfortunately, Gandhiji's India does tolerate when a senior national leader declares he spent Rs. 8 Cr in the election. We also tolerate the people implicated in corruption, misuse of power and even sex scandals, to contest again, win and rule over us. That means we have a ritual of the democracy, not the soul.
Perhaps the root cause of this 'Ritualisation' lies in the way we are.
During the Ancient time, Indian religious thought was based on Vedas. They were deemed to have all the knowledge in the world. We did accept it and a great era of 'Ritualism' and stagnation began.
It took a Buddha to come out and rediscover the original truth and put it in new form. He opposed all sorts of rituals, giving us the path of salvation. That path has to be traveled alone, and by one's own act, without any rituals. He also told us 3000 years back to be one's own guide (अत्त दिपो भव् )
The forces of 'Ritualism' proved powerful again and the whole teaching of Buddhism was transformed into 'Ritualism' by Hinayana sect.
Rest, as they say, is history.
There are countless such examples why we tend to forget the soul and 'Ritualise' the whole idea.
Indian Democracy and Administration, by far, is the epitome of that 'Ritualism'. What do you call a system that requires a person to bring a 'Living Certificate' showing that he is not dead indeed! And what sort of people are we, for whom the whole system needs to be established?
Europe witnessed a fabulous phenomenon of 'Enlightenment and Renaissance' 13th century onward. What it did was to encourage 'Reason and Humanity' against the dogmas.
We, who were flourishing by the time, lost the tide of Reason and fell down to the dark trenches of 'Irrational Exuberance'
That's why, Dozens of former Prime Ministers, Presidents, National political leaders and athletes find it necessary to bow down to a proven thug disguised as a Baba, who has amassed fabulous wealth. We also tolerate a Godman accused of multiple sexual violations, and the protests against his arrest, when in the first place he is supposed to be practicing 'Brahmacharya'.
We behave so irrationally, and that too often even to count. Milk drinking Ganesha to Online Horoscope, there is no limit to our foolishness.
The worst part is we don't even acknowledge our foolishness. We disguise the irrationality under 'Faith, Belief and sometimes Complicit Ignorance'
Complicit Ignorance means even being aware of it, we choose not to pay attention to that.
The same Godman accused of Sexual Molestation, has not seen any considerable loss in number of followers.
The question here is not of having faith or believing in god. I believe that is a personal choice and everyone is free to exercise that without forcing someone else into that. My objection is to the blanket refusal of Indian mindset to critically look into their lives, faith, belief and most importantly their, our future.
We are just proud of our culture. How many would actually be able to define it?
Further, how many of them have bothered to study it?
In Maharashtra it is pretty common to evoke Dnyaneshwar/Tukaram.
But hey, have you read them? 9 out of 10 haven't.
Same goes with Ambedkar/Gandhiji/Shivaji and countless others. We keep on forgetting the soul, focusing only on the simplistic rituals. Its pretty easy to wear Khadi than to practice Gandhi's principles. Its very beneficial to keep saying 'जय भीम' rather than bothering oneself to read Ambedkar and Phule.
One of the great excuse of Indian mind says "चार किताबे क्या पढ़ ली, चले अकल सीखाने"
We don;t agree that the knowledge is something that one can learn. We want someone to teach it it to us.
This may not be a true analysis and I mean no disrespect. But the 'Bhakti Marg' of salvation has come indeed between the 'Dnyan Marg' and certainly is leading the 'Karma Marg' to inappropriate direction.
We oppose to Wendi Doniger for some obscene analysis of the Hindu gods. But we don't bother to answer them by studying and bringing the other side to light. We are happy to give a bullshit and lame duck excuse of 'Disrespecting the Belief' using a draconian Colonial provision of law. Do we say," Hey is it really so? If yes, let me see it. Let me check it out"
NO. We Don't.
Every society has contradiction and so do we. But we are known to resolve those contradictions and to establish the 'Samyaq Marg'.
What exists today is our refusal to accept that there are contradictions. If at all one accepts there are contradictions, we are not interested in resolving them. We insist of having our side to be the only side, to end the contradictions.
To substantiate, a fool Chief Minister (thankfully Former), who took oath, didn't anything to correct the wrongs in the system, rather he went on to demolish the existing one and impose his new version. And what a great way to do that, by protesting on the Rajpath ahead of the ceremony to celebrate India's Democracy!!
Even during his movement (or fiasco whatever one wants to call), it was 'either my way or the highway'. All of that based on some irrational ideas not open to discussion.
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was aware of our devotion to Ritualism.
That's why he must have wrote :
"Where the clear stream of Reason has not lost its way
Into dreary desert sand of dead habits"
We do have grand success in Scientific developments as a Nation. Its only a mirage at individual tempers.
Today we are again celebrating the National Science Day with a theme 'Fostering Scientific Tempers'
May this be a small step for us, the Indians, which lets work together to make a giant leap for Mankind...
