Know Your Heritage - 07

Progress is a big word in our modern world. If you say 'progress' you can justify anything as it were. But in our heritage there is a balanced view. The so called 'Progress' is put in its place. In our modern world 'Progress' is self-authentic. But in our heritage 'Progress' needs to be authenticated by something larger. Because the whole human life itself is seen in its cosmic context rather than as the exploiting core of the dull world around. 

The artifice by which they keep up this dynamic balance between the progress of the parts and the stasis of the whole is itself interesting. Every individual life is understood as the development of stages. A human being born is unfinished and becomes finished human being only after the completion of education. That is the basic stage of the human life. After that, the human being must progress, multiply whatever is at his hand, whatever he has acquired by way of skills or knowledge while learning. He is expected to excel in whatever he chooses. He must create money not grab it. He marries and brings forth children. And he must vouchsafe their education. 

While engaged in progress he must take care of five important things. He must take care of his forefathers by raising good children. He must take care of the masters of wisdom by preserving and strengthening the great books and the education on such books. He must take care of the piety, the social understanding of the divine. He must take care of helpless human beings. And last but not least, he must take care of the animals, birds and other beings around. Even our understanding of progress is detailed in this way. Mindless exploitation and frantic grabbing have never been our concept of progress and will never be. 

Even this concept of 'progress' is not endless. The human being who engages in this stage of life is reminded of more important things and much broader concerns. His involvement with 'progress' is only time-bound. He must yield to the next generations and take up more important tasks in life. This scheme is not something imposed on him from outside. It is something deeply inlaid in the very living itself. After you have gone all speed in external life you are expected to slow down and reverse your aims. You must now begin trekking in the internal explorations. You were reveling in the world of things. Now you are expected to learn and master in the world of concepts, values and ideas. You were driving through avenues of reality out there. But now you must go uphill in the reaches of your inner reality. You were speeding through roads. Now you are trekking through forests. The symbolic name of this stage of life is 'Vanaprasta'. 'starting into the forests'. 

You were chasing progress outside before. Now you have to chasten down by progressing in the inside. You were contributing to the society by way of things and more things. Now you are contributing to the same society by way of values and wisdom. This thermostat you have to keep up, this system of checks and balances. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Know Your Heritage - 06

When do you call a thing 'heritage'? Something coming as a tradition may become or may not become 'heritage'. That means, heritage involves a process of 'stop, look and think'. A revisionary outlook which identifies the good and abiding aspects to be preserved in contradistinction to anything not constructive and hence not worth preserving. Heritage involves a positive approach towards future based on revisions of reading the past. 

Tapas is one of the concepts in our heritage which needs understanding. Again a misunderstood concept, which may kindle in us pictures of long beards and forest huts and being immobile for long periods of time. But if we look into it deeply, it is a great concept and a skill never to be missed. 

Tapas is looking into a thing afresh. To become aware of a thing in all its aspects. To overcome one's own prejudices, to give up one's own preconceptions about the thing concerned - all these form part of tapas. Tapas is a highly sensible way of understanding. In tapas you begin to scientifically handle the mind as an effective instrument, whereas before, mind was a field of distractions. 

Tapas sharpens your perception not only regarding what you understand but also regarding the areas and issues that you have not understood. Of course 'tapas' has a root meaning of 'being heated' or 'burning'. But in usage it has become a way of being cool and attentive without conditions. After an initial practice, tapas becomes a jolly way of being totally receptive and perceptive, being closely at an issue or subject in awareness tending towards becoming full. It is an unconditional way of being attentive to the object or the subject concerned. With no anxiety or exploitation in mind being attentive takes one deeper and closer to the reality instanced right before us. We have paid too much interest in symbolisms and lost sight of the real principles behind. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Know Your Heritage - 05

Respect towards nature doesn't stop with water, light and wind. Trees are very important. They bridge the earth and the atmosphere. Atmosphere is called in our culture as 'antariksha'. In between earth and sky, antariksha forms an important place of exchange. Trees strengthen the soil, purify the air and please the atmosphere in one stroke. Trees by becoming habitations of birds propagate themselves across lands. 

Rivers form another important part of our ecosystem. When the trees make the atmosphere yield their water content to the soil as rains from clouds, the water as rivers flow across the landscape, enriching the soil and giving life. Flora and fauna are but siblings nourished by the flowing life before reaching the great deposits of seas. 

All these cycles of nature are considered facets of divinity in our culture. They are not there as commodities for human beings to exploit. They form part of the great chain of being which houses human beings also. What part these play as natural functions, human beings should play knowingly and in full awareness. What was added to the human being as knowledge is compensated by the lack of automaticity in the discharge of nature. The human being born is not automatically human being in function. For that the human being must choose to reach upto its own nature and function. Intelligence is a great thing given to the human being but not as automatic. The human being must choose to be intelligent and choose to stay intelligent. 

A place of divinity should be a topos where all these elements of nature are held in deep consideration. That is why in our temples, the sthalavruksha play an important part. Sthalavruksha is 'the tree of the place'. Rivers or bodies of water form the Tirtha attached to the temple. Tirtha is 'what is purifying'. In our concept the divine not only resides in the sanctum but also in the form of all these elements of nature. You cannot be cruel to the trees and say you are devoted to the God inside. You cannot desecrate the rivers and say you are a bhakta of the divine form inside. Our worship starts from our conscience. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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Know Your Heritage - 04

Another important concept in our heritage is the respect and understanding towards nature. Nature consists of five elements. The soil forms the basis of our living. When we lose ourselves in abstract concepts even symbolically we say 'let us come down to earth'. We feel the earth as surest basis of our living. Space and the sky contain us and our living. The water, the light and the wind form the essentials of our sustenance. This fact is imprinted in our minds right from childhood in a spiritual way. 

Every morning we are expected to invite the source of all light, viz., the Sun, having water in our hands and measured breath in our nostrils. We are made aware of the earth on which we stand and the sky towards which we look into. We are made to realise that we form part of the whole nature and as mindful creatures we should in full awareness hold these elements in gratitude and respect. All these are the physical faces of the self-same divinity that is in our hearts and the same divinity that is shining like the Sun and also in the Sun. The same Sun in midday is again remembered and thanked with water in the hands and mantras in the mind. The light removes our darkness. The water purifies us. And the wind in peace bestows long life. Every day we are made to vibrate in tune with cosmic movements. 

Again in the evening we give a thankful send-off for the day by pouring water to the setting Sun with mantras. And we invite the night. These junctions of night and day in the morning and the day and night in the evening, form important part of our daily life along with the midday salutations to the Sun. We ground ourselves to the cosmos thrice a day. These junctions are beautifully named as 'sandhya'. To salute during these junctions is sandhya vandanam. Becoming aware totally of the water, the light and the wind, we stand firm on the ground and look with love to the sky. When we make peace with our own breathing and do it as an art, it is called Pranayama. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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Know Your Heritage - 03

An important concept in our heritage is the concept of dharma. Much misunderstood concept is also this dharma. Dharma is essentially meaning 'the sustaining'. What sustains what, what is sustained by what, how is it sustained, just physically or externally, or also internally and intrinsically are the various aspects connected with this dharma. In nature and society we see that the structures are a series of supports and supported. Something rests on something else. A thing exists only in relationship with various things. If the mutual relationships are healthy then the whole structure and functioning are healthy. 

In inanimate things what constitutes an object exists purely for the object to be whole and functioning. Suppose we have a chair, what constitutes a chair exists in that form of chair purely to enable the chair to be whole and functioning. If a part fails in this status of being a subsidiary to the object 'chair', then that part loses its reason to exist in that form. Either we repair it and bring it into the overall usage or we remove it, so that that part no more belongs to chair. In living things it is not that simple. The parts assume more and more individual status in addition to being subsidiaries to something else which comprises them. And the principle of sustaining is also more complicated in that it has become more organic and intrinsic. In bio-things the roots assume much importance. In animals the principle of life and feelings become more visible and the principle of sustaining is again more nuanced. 

In the world of human beings, the principle of sustaining is more anchored in the mind, even though physical and biological aspects are also there. Hence the concept of dharma, which is nothing but the principle of sustaining, centres around the education of the mind. The mind to function fully as mind needs to be educated. In human scale of living nothing is automatic. Education assumes prime importance. A human baby born doesn't become automatically a citizen. It needs education. So dharma makes it necessary that each and every child should be educated. When dharma is misunderstood as convenient human assumptions, confusion sets in. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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Know Your Heritage - 02

A very important concept in our heritage is Yajna or Sacrifice. Immediately we should not imagine a fire-lit centre around which people sit and pour something into the fire. We must look into the symbolism and the dynamic concept that is behind. 

A Yajna or a sacrifice consists of certain elements. In a sacrifice there is somebody with an intention and a purpose. And there is something poured into the fire. And it is believed what one wishes for even though not visible gets formed to be delivered to the sacrificer in the future. What comes out of the sacrifice is the transformed and materialised wish. It may look something odd. 

But let us think about how we act in the real world. We are aware of some present conditions. We want to change the present to a more agreeable future. For that we take all the steps. Say, the roads are damaged by rains. Transport is difficult. So people inform the departments and also take some steps in the meanwhile to ease the passage of vehicles and beings. We put in our time and energy by cooperation. Where? Into the locus of the problem, partly visible partly invisible. By collected efforts some result comes about. It has become more pliable. In the meantime people from the department also reach the spot and the road is made perfect. 

Our Sastras ask us to view all these activities in terms of Yajna - somebody having the intention, some efforts are put into, some results are reaped. The visible-invisible locus where what tangibles we sacrifice into gets transformed into what we want, that locus is Agni. Fire. Our Sastras say even in nature there are series of such Yajnas taking place to vouchsafe continuity and prosperity. The rains from the sky are the oblations poured on the parched earth, soil is drenched, all the beings and vegetations get their water and rejuvenate. This is one Yajna. 

The Sun's rays fall on the earth. Water gets evaporated and as if poured into the rays. Vapour goes to the sky and clouds are formed to migrate to the places panting for rain. Again a Yajna. In society we change an old order; bring something new to suit our needs. In technology we change our gadgets, instruments according to the growing necessity. 

Nature is controlled by blind cause and effect. But in social decisions, if what we bring in is not in tune with the general good, then our sacrifices have not been deivic but asuric. That is not benevolent but malevolent. Deivic is godly. asuric is demonaic. If our choices as individuals or as society go in tune with the overall good, long range, then we are doing the Yajna in the divine way. If not in the demonly way. We can correct ourselves. This point is beautifully illustrated in our mythology by stories of demons doing Yajna in a highly selfish and short-sighted way. Whereas Devas do it only in line with the cosmic good. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Know your Heritage - 01

The world is a beautiful place. Variety is the soul of nature. At the same time harmony weaves the happy note all  through this variety. Similarity and patterns help us understand the rich fabric. Meanings we arrive at integrate us. And integration is meaningful only when there is variety around. Imagine sameness all around. How boring will it be! 

It is only the principles which are same and not forms. This important point was understood very early in the Hindu civilization. So they were able to give a call to people to integrate and come together and move towards common meanings understood. In Rig Veda we find this call coming out upon human society anywhere. 'Let us come together. Let us talk about things where we concur. Let us together move towards truth by sharing our understanding.' (R V X.191). 

Why Rig Veda was giving this great call even at such a remote age? It understood the value of society and family much earlier than many civilizations. A human being is born into a family. He/She has to start as a good social being even before becoming a good individual. It is only in a good family that an individual can also grow to full maturity. A human being must blossom into a good individual. For that the family provides a good base, a good training. The family acts as a good coach for the individual. 

As it is in the case of family, so also it is with respect to society. In the society a human being has to act as an individual. In the family a human being is born as a biological being. The faculties are playing out towards full form in the family and the school. An individual is the result of those surroundings. In the society, the individuals must come together. They must act in cooperation with other individuals. He/She must be authentic in the sense he/she must be responsible for one's thoughts and actions. Assessing oneself and accessing others form part of an art. Realising one's position means knowing one's limitations. If you are not aware of your limitations you can never cognize the others as free individuals like you. As an individual what you realise as something not possible, as a society, by cooperating with others you can achieve. 

To respect others and to understand the common goals one must be active in mind. Perceiving what others mean, expressing oneself so that others may perceive what we mean becomes very essential in the society. Hence the call peculiar from Rig Veda. This has set the tone nearly of our heritage down the time. 

One of the serious problems of our time is the question of individuality vs society. But in our heritage this problem is taken in all seriousness and solutions given. A man is expected to respect his individual needs quite as seriously as his social duties. Any human being is born with three duties or debts as per our ancient books. Those debts are debt towards forefathers, debt towards sages and great scholars and debt towards gods. Only because the forefathers chose to procreate and maintain their family, now we are here, each and everybody. So any human being born is  indebted to the forebears. How to repay that debt? By marrying and continuing the lineage. Great sages and great scholars have given us great thoughts and discoveries to live by. They have enabled the happy continuity till our time. And the debt towards them is repaid by studying what they have done and improve upon their ideas and discoveries. To cherish their memories with gratitude. Many divine forces have been at work globally and cosmically to make it possible for us and our existence to sustain. Their debt is repaid by doing our actions in the full awareness of the cosmic sense and as offerings to them, There is a fourth debt we owe unto ourselves. We have our soul born with all desires. We have to educate our soul with patience in managing the desires and transcending them in full understanding. For that we must not deny unjustly any ethical desires of the soul. May be allowing ourselves in compassion to enjoy ethically is a step towards liberation. In Sri Ramayana, Bharadwaja while solacing Sri Rama and trying to bring him out of his grief over his father's death, says this point. viz., Dasaratha repaid all the four debts in his life including the debt towards his soul by allowing himself to ethical fulfillment. 

In our heritage never individuality and social commitment are seen mutually contradictory or mutually cancelling. For a proper understanding of one's place in society was natural in our culture. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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