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Shraddha Jan 24, 2015 Dr. P. Subbanna Bhat 2
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The Spiritual Paradigm...40 o The Creation is the manifestation of the Divine. एक ब रह म द व त य न स तत न न न स तत ककन चन I o All life is a search for Ananda direct perception of Brahman यत स क ष त अपर क ष त ब रह म य आत म स न तर I o Freedom (to choose the Path, Form, and Action ) is inherent to the Spiritual paradigm व म श य तदश ष ण यथ च छसस तथ क र I o Evolution is governed by the Cosmic Law (of karma ) उद धर द त मन त म न आत म नम स धय त I 4
Dharma is that...28 Dharma is that which achieves : तत श र य र पम अत यस जत धम I Dharma was conceived by the Divine for achieving the highest good for all Creation ---[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1-4.14] यत भ य दय ननश र यस ससवद ध स धम I That which achieves Material prosperity ( Abhyudaya ) along with Spiritual growth ( Shreyas ) ध रण त धम समत यह धम ध रयनत प रज I ---[Vasheshika Sutra, I-1.2] Dharma is that principle which sustains (the society) ----[Mahabharata, Karnaparva, 69-58] 5
Distinct from Religion... 29 o Ethical value system for the Society o Temporal and Spiritual growth of people o Restraint of senses to evolve to higher level ततम त इस न य न य द ननयम य भरतष भ [Bhagavad Gita, 3-41] o Emphasis on shradda essential for any growth श रद ध हह परम ग र Dharma is distinct from religion (Creedal faith systems) 6
Shraddha is not blind... 1 श रद ध न लभत ज ञ न तत पर स यत स न य I ज ञ न लब दद पर श स न तमचचर ण चधगच छनत II One full of sharaddha, devoted to the cause, subdued one s own senses, obtains Knowledge ; and quickly reaches the Supreme Peace. तद व वद ध प रणणप त न पररप रश न न स य I उपद ष यस न त त ज ञ न ज ञ नननततत दसश न II Know that Knowledge (of the Self) has to be gained through obeisance (attitude of respect and surrender), inquiry and service. Sages who have known the truth alone can give you knowledge. --- [Bhagavad Gita, 4-39,34] 7
Shraddha is... 2 o आस ततक य ब वद ध (Trust in the Divine Base of Creation) Shankaracharya o Trust in one s own (Divine) Self o Conviction in the meaningfulness of life and universe o The impelling force behind the search for Truth (Para-vidya, apara-vidya: science, arts, spiritual quest.... ) o Base of character, civil virtues and social graces o Totality of positive attitude (total absence of cynicism) 8
The Lamp within...3 Gautama Buddha ( Mahaparinirvaana sutra ) : आत म द प भ I Be a Lamp unto yourself. Rely on yourself; do not depend on external help. The more you draw from within, the more will your potentialities be realized Ralph Waldo Emerson: Trust Thyself ; every heart vibrates to this iron string 9
Shraddha enters the heart...4 o When shraddha entered his heart, Nachiketa thought... श रद ध व श स sमन यत I o Shraddha transformed Panini श रद ध न लभत ज ञ न तत पर स यत स न य I o The channel through which satwa manifests.. क य ससवद ध सत भ नत महत न पकरण I 10
Shraddha examples...5 o Socrates (469-399 BC) last words: Criton, we owe a cock to Asclepios; pay it without fail o Sir Thomas More (1478-1535): I am still the king s good servant ; but God s first o Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865): As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master o Milovan Djilas (1911-1995) : Author of The new class 11
Swamiji on Shraddha...6 I would not translate this word shraddha to you; it would be a mistake; it is a wonderful word to understand, and much depends on it.... Unfortunately it has nearly vanished from India, and this is why we are in our present state. What makes the difference between man and man is the difference in this shraddha and nothing else. What makes one man great and the other weak and low is this shraddha.... This shraddha must enter into you... --- [Swami Vivekananda, CW, Vol-3, pp.319-320] 12
Swamiji on Shraddha...7 Believe in that infinite Soul, the infinite Power which, with consensus of opinion, our books and sages preach. That Atman which nothing can destroy, in It is infinite Power, only waiting to be called out. Here is the great difference between all other philosophies and the Indian philosophy. Whether dualistic, qualified monistic, or monistic, they all firmly believe that everything is in the Soul itself; it has only to come out and manifest itself. --- [Swami Vivekananda, CW, Vol-3, pp.319-320] 13
Cynicism...8... is the opposite of Shraddha...[A cynic] is a clod of ailments and grievances, ever complaining that the world does not devote itself to making one happy... George Bernard Shaw, Author, Playwright अज ञश चश रद धध नश च स शय त म व नश यनत I न य ल क s स तत न पर न स ख स शय त मन II Ajnashcha ashradhadhanashcha samshayatma vinashyati Nayam loko sti na paro na sukham samshayatmanah [Bhagavad Gita,4-40] 14
Macaulay s Minute...9 Lord Macaulay, (Chairman, Board of Public Instruction) in his Minute, dated Feb 2, 1835 [approved by Lord Bentinck, Governor General, on March 07, 1835] :... In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed.... We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature..." ---- Macaulay s Minute, 2 nd Feb, 1835 [<http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt _minute_education_1835.html>] 15
Macaulay s Minute... 10 I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanscrit works.... I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is, indeed, fully admitted by those members of the Committee who support the Oriental plan of education. ---- Macaulay s Minute, 2 nd Feb, 1835 [<http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt _minute_education_1835.html>] 16 ]
Macaulay s Minute... 11.... But when we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded, and general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable. It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say, that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England. In every branch of physical or moral philosophy, the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same. ---- Macaulay s Minute, 2 nd Feb, 1835 [<http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/maca ulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html>] 17
Macaulay's Minute...12 In 1836, Macaulay, chairman of the Education Board, wrote to his father: "Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully.... It is my belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will be effected without any efforts to proselytize, without the smallest interference with religious liberty, by natural operation of knowledge and reflection. I heartily rejoice in the project. Every young Brahmin who learns geography in our colleges, learns to smile at the Hindoo mythology ---[Arun Shourie, Missionaries in India, pp.64-65] 18
Bankim records the impact...13 Relative to the people at large who remained illiterate... The number of babus (babu a native clerk who writes English - Webster) was small. They were still a sufficiently noticeable feature on the landscape of the new dispensation for Bankim Chandra Chatterjee to write caustically in 1873: The babus will be indefatigable in talk, experts in a particular foreign language, and hostile to their mother tongue... Some highly intelligent babus will be born who will be unable to converse in their mother tongue.... Like Vishnu they will have ten incarnations, namely clerk, teacher, brahmo, accountant, doctor, lawyer, magistrate, landlord, editor, and unemployed...babus will consume water at home, alcohol at friends, abuses at the prostitutes, and humiliation at the employers. ---[quoted from: Pavan Verma, The great Indian middle class, pp.4-5] 19
Swamiji on the consequence...14 Swami Vivekananda pointed out more than a century ago: "The child is taken to school, and the first thing he learns is that his father is a fool, the second thing is that his grandfather is a lunatic, the third thing is that all his teachers are hypocrites, the fourth is that all his sacred books are lies. By the time he is sixteen, he is a mass of negation, lifeless and boneless. And the result is that fifty years of such education has not produced one original man in the three presidencies.... We have learnt only weakness... ---[Swami Vivekananda, India and her problems, pp.38-39] 20
Strangers in own land...15... A graphic image of the more privileged products of Macaulay s education system was given by Ananda K Coomaraswamy as early as 1908 (Modern Review, Calcutta, Vol. 4, Oct. 1908, p.338): Speak to the ordinary graduate of an Indian University, or a student from Ceylon, of the ideals of the Mahabharata he will hasten to display his knowledge of Shakespeare; talk to him of religious philosophy you find that he is an atheist of the crude type common in Europe a generation ago, and that not only has he no religion, but is as lacking in philosophy as the average Englishman; talk to him of Indian music he will produce a gramophone or a harmonium and inflict upon you one or both; talk to him of Indian dress or jewellry he will tell you that they are un-civilised and barbaric; talk to him of Indian art it is news to him that such a thing exists; ask him to translate for you a letter written in his own mother-tongue he does not know it. He is indeed a stranger in his own land.. ---[quoted by Dharampal, in the The Beautiful Tree, p. 91] 21
Swamiji s remedy...16 Therefore, this shraddha is what I want., and what all of us here want, this faith in ourselves, and before you is the great task to get that faith. Give up the awful disease that is creeping into our national blood, that idea of ridiculing everything, that loss of seriousness. Give that up. Be strong and have this Shraddha, and everything else is bound to follow. --- [Swami Vivekananda, CW, Vol-3, pp.319-320] 22
Light a lamp within...17 For Spiritual unfoldment and temporal success: o Light a Lamp within (Trust thy [Divine] Self ) o Resolve every conflict in the light of the Lamp within o Maintain positive attitude (Search for meaning in every experience of life [absence of cynicism] ) Trust the Core Divinity the Guru will light the Path 23
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References 1. Swami Ranganathananda, The Message of the Upanishads, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1980 2. Swami Vivekananda, India and her Problems, Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, 1976 3. Swami Vivekananda, CW, Vol-3, 4. Arun Shourie, Missionaries in India,1994 5. Dharampal, The Beautiful Tree, 1983 6. Pavan Verma, The great Indian middle class, 7. Macaulay s Minute, Feb 02, 1835 <http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/ma caulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html> 8. <www. Wikipedia.org> 25
Atma Deepo Bhavah... 26
Socrates taking hemlock 27