Thanks to the colonial legacy, alienation from our languages, and the searing pace of modernity, for a section of us, Indian culture continues to be synonymous with social evils, obsolete beliefs and sadly nothing else. This is a much-needed primer to connect with our past and should become a part of our school textbooks.

Colonial Legacy

“Diversity yes, but we have caste!”, is a constant apology amongst us for being Indian.Varṇa or the “so-called caste system is incidental” to the continuous influx of peoples and their social amalgamations and assimilations. Division of society, like varṇa, was part of the social organisations of ancient civilisations all over the world.

Multiculturalism And Apologising Nature Of Indian Intellectuals 

In India, our heroes were/are saints from all castes who strove for social unity and condemned discrimination. Permeable caste boundaries and non-discriminatory laws are something we are proud of in today’s India, and will hopefully, help us drop our self-disdain.

“It is wrong to imagine that these dharma śāstras were either uniform or mandatory. No single author of dharma śāstra ever claimed to be an undisputed lawgiver; and no dharma śāstra (there are in fact several of them) has ever been binding or universally accepted.” s,ed.”

The Mahābhārata says: “put yourself in the position of others (‘ätmaupamyena’) and then act. This, in brief, is dharma”. This nobility called dharma-“the law of life itself,” is at the very heart of Indian culture.“The source of dharma is the scripture, i.e., the Veda, which is based on “intuition”, unlike the dharma śāstras which depend on reason and are liable to change as per changing social mores. uch of what is significant and magnificent in Indian culture can be said to have flowered out of this ancient pool of wisdom that the word ‘veda’ really means.”

Dharma

To the Vedas, youth, maturity, and old age are not merely inexorable processes of life with no objective. They are purposeful stages assigned with commitments.“Chändogya-upanishad (2,23) describes the duties in the three stages of life as “offshoots or branches of dharma” (‘trayo dharmaskandhä’): totality of obligations and privileges of a householder, hermit, and student.”

The Three Stages Of Life ( 

whatever is sought by human beings these are not specific to any āśrama or varṇa but common to all. The Vedas say the three human pursuits of artha(wealth), kāma(pleasures), liberation from worldly ills (mokṣa) must have dharma as their foundation. In this context, dharma refers to, human values like compassion, truth, charity, forgiveness, self-restraint, and so on.

The Three Purusharths

Originally, the puruṣārthas are only three-dharma, artha, and kāma. Mokṣa is left completely up to the individual. Dharma is more concerned with the business of living, and less about mokṣa, unlike popular belief. “…………The one who seeks mokṣa is beyond the stages of life and outside society, and his conduct does not fall within the scope of the dharma śāstras.”

By studying and understanding the cultural context in which he is born, one discharges the debt to the sages, by continuing the family line by having children of his own, one discharges the debt to the ancestors and by honouring and worshipping the elemental and environmental forces air, water, sky, earth, rivers, and mountains etc (which are in fact the luminous ones, the devas in the Rigvēdas) one discharges the debt to Gods.”

The Three ṛṇas and ṛta

The texts say that by simply fulfilling these obligations, a person has done everything that needs to be done and need not do anything more. The aim of dharma is to move us from, “self-gratification to duty fulfilment.” Interestingly, the dharma śāstras say that the pursuit of mokṣa at the cost of fulfilling the debts is not ideal.

If a person’s fulfilment of the three purposes of life is devoid of obligations then what remains is a creature of animal instincts and passions, not humanness. “Samskāra” (literally meaning rendering whole) is the transformation of the animal man to human man through “addhā vidya – right education, correct knowledge and proper understanding”. The word ṛta means “cosmic law and order or an orderly occurrence” and is synonymous with dharma – “that which is right, immutable, pervasive, and capable of supporting”. This essay does not elaborate on ṛta , but it certainly instigates us to look it up.

If the āśramas give us a structure, the puruṣārthas, ṛta and ṛṇas attempt to add meaning, which is necessary for our sense of fulfilment. Any topical rights-based discourse is incomplete until it embraces the vision of dharma – of pursuits balanced with duties. If we strive to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature, while considering the welfare of ourselves as well as others, we have reached the Vedas.

The Structure 

Kumarila Bhatta (about 600 A.D) rightly points out that even the so-called heterodox Buddhism and Jainism are derived only from the Upanishadic source. The purpose of all philosophical systems and religious approaches, … is to help withdraw man’s passionate interest in worldly objects and affairs and to this extent he points out, all (of them) are valid and authentic. Here we have a clue to the spiritual orientation of Indian culture, its reverent and tolerant attitude to other cultures.

Other Secta

This popular version of the Vedic tradition has prevailed in the country for over a thousand years now. The Agamas focus on the theme of man’s relationship with the beyond. Art literature, dance architecture, entertainment, sport, and folklore are all directly derived from this Agama tradition.It is especially concerned with worship in temples, procedures of icon making and temple building, religious observances and practices, yoga, mantra and tantra.”

The Agama Tradition

To paraphrase from the Bhāgavata, which describes culture as the primordial tree, which has but one direction, two fruits, three roots and four flavours. The one direction being prosperity, both material and spiritual. The two fruits being pleasure and pain, the three roots represent the three forms of indebtedness to gods, ancestors, and sages (ṛṇa), the four flavours refer to the four common human aspirations (puruṣārthas).

Conclusion

Collectively called “brahma vidya”, the famed Upanishads are the culmination of the Vedic vision of “ekam sat”- the one reality manifesting itself in all beings. It is through the aforementioned “addhā vidya that one can acquire the knowledge of the self – the spirit that is independent of the body.All the different philosophical systems in the country are rooted in the Upanishadic lore.

The Upanishads

“…. dharma is, in other words, the inner light of clear conscience, mindful of the welfare of all, minimizing ego-involvement and selfishness in institutional behaviour.”

The two great epics of our country are essential to us because they illustrate the subordination of 2 human pursuits, i.e. artha and kāma to dharma.Valmiki describes Rāma as the very embodiment of dharma.”The Rāmāyaṇa is “truly the mirror of Indian culture,” and is an exemplar to all classical literature in the country. The Mahābhārata expands on the challenges that dharma faces from artha and kāma in both personal and public life. Its crowning glory the Bhagavad Gita, asks us to rise above the life’s vagaries and unpredictability by relying on“the Supreme spirit,” which is within every bein

The Epics Aka 

This stash tells about the essentials of Indian culture, and how it has to be understood within a context. It tells about its majestic nature on hand, and it's ability to spiritually uplift on the other.

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