Glorious India, Arise

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Humanity's Onward March

In the march of humanity, in every sphere, one observes a hidden potential. 'Man never progresses from error to truth, but from truth to truth,' as Swami Vivekananda aptly puts it, 'from lower truth to higher truth.' Sometimes this onward march takes place through war trumpets, sometimes through industrial revolution, through business enterprises, marvellous scientific discoveries, and also through religious understanding. From the hermit's cottage to the peasant's farmyard to the engineer's workshop—everywhere our journey from the embryonic state to the fully manifested state of divinity remains undeniable, undeterred by any obstruction. Through whatever path mankind may wend its way, straight or crooked, this journey is from humanity to divinity. This journey may also be called a pilgrimage. If we are well-equipped with a good amount of samsk"ras as our capital, and are careful enough not to fritter our energy in meaningless pursuits, our life will be worth living.

Are We Progressing?

The foregoing statements raise a question in our mind: Are we really moving forward or are we retreating? Judging by the restlessness all round, corruption and malpractices, lack of viable ideology, indiscriminate cut-throat competitions, upsurge of mental problems as an offshoot of such rat races, the common man may be inclined to wonder that way. The latest discoveries of science have made life comfortable. With the onrush of computer technology we have made unprecedented breakthroughs in many fields, nuclear weapons have helped us fortify our defence, and so on.

But the question keeps raising its ugly head despite all efforts to hush it. Are we coming closer in friendship or within point-blank range of each other due to the ill-feeling born out of steep competition? The popular English proverb 'everyone for himself and devil take the hindmost' seems to be fully applicable to the present day society. Indeed science has brought us a great blessing on the one hand by dispelling age-old superstitions, steering our lifestyle to a better one, and on the other, it bestows the worst form of curse humanity could ever imagine.

Whose fault is it? When ill-natured people, trained in a destructive cultural back- ground, or harbouring a deep sense of deprivation, come to power, they invariably take recourse to the evil effects of science. That is not in the least the fault of science. Similar is the case with religion. When people with vested interest and fanatic zeal take advantage of the simplicity of their fellowmen and distort religious verdicts, is it in any way the fault of religion? Every nation has an inner life on which its free progress depends. Due to the imposition of externalities in religion, the inner synthesising force fails to function smoothly, and the result is the loss of power and purposefulness in life.

This is what Dr. Viktor E. Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist and a pioneer in logotherapy, terms as 'meaning in life'. When we fail to relate our experiences meaningfully to our inner life, it is the first sign of stagnation. Life is like a perennial flow of the current of vital force (pr"na shakti) and every individual life is connected to the cosmic, the totality of all lives, through an unseen link. This missing link was discovered by the Vedic seers who termed it as ritam, meaning harmony. (Interestingly, ritam has much similarity in pronunciation with the English word rhythm.).

Each individual has to learn to live in harmony with the world outside. When this harmony gets disturbed due to our neglect or indifference to it, we become selfish and, as in the case of auto-immune diseases, our defence system mistakes our body cells for an enemy and destroys the friendly cells; so we become our own enemy. This has been conveyed in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6, through the statements: "tmaiva ripur"tmanah and vartet"tmaiva shatruvat. When we judge ourselves by these standards, we can easily know whether we are progressing or are held up by any mysterious force. Let us look at some facts with regard to India.

About The Author

Swami Kritarthananda is a monk of Ramakrishna Order. He contributes thoughtful articles to The Vedanta Kesari.