Not Hindutva but Sanatan Dharma or Integral Spirituality
There is a vociferous and strident
lobby of intellectuals, of the self-righteous western brand, who persistently
downgrades the traditions of
There could perhaps be an
alternative term to Sanatan Dharma or Hindutva or Hindu Religion, such as
‘Integral Spirituality’ embracing life to lift life to spiritual heights. It
could be,—if it is going to solve the problem at all. If there is the
universality of the Spirit, then it is that which will be its basis for
institutionalisation without becoming institutional in any constitutional
framework of a fixed kind and mind. It shall derive its nourishing inspiration
from its origin itself which knows the modes of time and the particularities of
location. But we could as well use Sanatan Dharma and Integral Spirituality as
synonyms. The foundation of society based on this Integral Spirituality will
not be local or regional or national, though each one will have its
characteristic feature, its form and manner and style of expression and
self-finding suitable to its uniqueness, its aspiration and thinking and
perception, satisfying its emotional demands and giving opportunities for
perfection in skill and work and labour. Quest and application of knowledge and
growth of reason and faith, the fearlessness in surmounting difficulties and
heroism and thrust and establishing the spirit of nobility, commerce and
economics and trade and production of material wealth as power at the service
of life’s beautiful and harmonious instincts, science and craft and engineering
and proficiency in work of whatever kind that be, of the mason or the carpenter
or the farmer or the electrician or the fitter or the plumber or the
cameraman,—that is the cherished expectation from an integral society in the
service of common humanity. The imbalances of various kinds we witness today,
such as affluence and poverty, the privileged and the under-privileged,
advanced as against slow developing nations or societies, illnesses of the
moneyed and the deprived, existence of superior educational facilities in some
places or regions and their dearth or absence in other, availability or
non-availability of natural resources, all these get further aggravated in
making the division between the classes sharper. There are conflicts, external
as well as internal. The treasured hope is, society founded on integral
spirituality will be able to attend to these aspects in a meaningful way. Add
to that the deficient vocabulary we use for all situations. Many of our current
terms, particularly nauseatingly misused or distorted Hindutva and cast system
and religious rites and rituals, even morality and ethics, are historically
laden with heavy ideological overtones and implications, which have no place
and which must be replaced to give proper sense acceptable to the modern mind
and soul. Amelioration of underprivileged is one small aspect, but the real
thrust should be seen in the possibilities of the spirit’s seeking expression
in all our walks of life for which every occasion is an opportunity towards its
fulfilment and realisation.
There is no doubt that the term ‘Hindutva’ got terribly corrupted and it is
better to avoid its use; it has slipped into the hands of politicians and is
now dreadfully virus-ridden. Yes, we should coin another term or phrase to
describe the true character of the ancient ideal that stands behind it. Could not
that be the reason why Sri Aurobindo wrote whatever he had to write in English
and not in Sanskrit or in any other Indian vernacular? Just imagine the kind of
confusion we would have caused or created with the long historical associations
of ideas and concepts entering into the connotations he has given to his terms!
The whole metaphysics would have got thoroughly messed up in the hands of the
traditionalists. In
But with the appearance of several religions and religious sects, several
ethnic and civilisations coming into contact with each, hostilely clashing with
each other, things have changed and today it is difficult to convey the sense
of what is ‘Hindutva’ to those who have fixed and superficial notions about it.
In fact, that is true for all religions. Surely, today we do not want to impose
the Vedic Yajna-ideal on others who have no faith in it, who have no experience
that comes from it, have no perception of it—which would otherwise be as good
as imposing democracy where the upbringing and the traditions are of a
different kind. But where is absent that aspiring soul of man not cherishing spiritual
transformation of life on earth? This is not the prerogative of the Hindutva
alone. But let us speak in terms of Integral Spirituality itself.
The approach of Integral Spirituality in practice is universal, existing whenever
and wherever there is the urge to find the truth, the seeker looking for
answers in his deep quest. It could be the truth of knowledge, it could be the
truth of aesthetic creation which is also beautiful, it could be the truth of
perfection in all our work, it could be the truth of physical culture seeking
the intuitive responses of the body itself, and so on. Today Hinduism itself is
a temple in half-ruins, as Sri Aurobindo says, and it needs to be reconstructed
by the realised architects and engineers of the spirit, by those who have
experienced it and are living in it. Should that not happen? Our concern should
be to see if we can participate in it, instead of putting our ideas based on
traditional and circumscribed thought or feeling or action or science or
religion or philosophy or theology or political ideology, or economics that
comes from the Amartya Sens of our age. It is possible and we should do it. But
let us use the term Integral Spirituality.
Vedic and Vedantic Knowledge
Vivekananda had put for himself the
task of serving the poor; darīdri
nārāyaņa was his preferred god, iştadevatā.
He established the Ramakrishna Order and served God the Poor, the Destitute.
The Vedic ideal belonged to Satya Yuga and the dharma, the character, of the
present Yuga, of the present Age of ours is of a different kind. There is also
the Dharma of the Time, Kala Dharma, and the Dharma of the Place, Sthana Dharma,
and the Dharma of the Youth and the Household and the Withdrawn and the
Renunciate. A distinction has to be made between what we call secular-social and
intensely spiritual aspects, between the individual and the collective life in
its double mode of existence. Ultimately of course it is the spirit which must
enter into life in all its stages and all the while, as much as life open to
the spirit in its greatnesses of expression. Most of our confusion arises
because of mixing up of the two.
Vladimir who is a Vedic scholar at
Savitri Bhavan, Auroville, puts it in a pleasingly acceptable manner: “Sanatana
Dharma is an establishment of the ancient Knowledge, which answers why we are
here and what this Creation is about. The very characteristic of profound Vedic
and Vedantic Knowledge is that it has to be lived and experienced inwardly in
our daily life; and once it is lived and experienced it leads to the expression
of enormous compassion and love towards all creatures, with deep understanding
of their struggle towards the Truth and Perfection. Sincerity, humility,
gratitude, tolerance, goodness, generosity, peace are the natural outcomes of
such an experience and has nothing to do with aggressive political slogans made
for some against the others. Hinduism conquers without battles, unnoticed, by
its true values and qualities. It does not need a proclamation of its
truthfulness, for then it can be questioned and must be proved, it needs to be
true.” Replace Hinduism by Sanatan Dharma, the Religion of the Eternal, lest it
be misinterpreted in a sectarian manner.
In this
connection let us contemplatively read the following from Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation
of scriptures as we have in his Essays
Divine and Human:
What… are the standards of truth in
the interpretation of the Scripture? The standards are three, the knower,
knowledge and the known.
The known is the text itself that we seek to interpret. We must be sure we have
the right word, not an emendation to suit the exigency of some individual or
sectarian opinion; the right etymology and shade of meaning, not one that is
traditional or forced to serve the ends of a commentator; the right spirit in
the sense, not an imported or too narrow or too elastic spirit.
The knower is the original dŗştā or
seer of the mantra, with whom we ought to be in spiritual contact. If knowledge
is indeed a perishable thing in a perishable instrument, such contact is
impossible; but in that case the Scripture itself must be false and not worth
considering. If there is any truth in what the Scripture says, knowledge is
eternal and inherent in all of us and what another saw I can see, what another
realised I can realise. The dŗştā was
a soul in relation with the infinite Spirit, I am also a soul in relation with
the infinite Spirit. We have a meeting-place, a possibility of communion.
Knowledge is the eternal truth, part of which the dŗştā expresses to us. Through the part he shows us, we must travel
to the whole, otherwise we shall be subject to the errors incidental to an
imperfect knowledge. If even the part is to be rightly understood, it must be
viewed in the terms of the whole, not the whole in the terms of the part. I am
not limited by the Scriptures; on the contrary I must exceed them in order to
be master of their knowledge. It is true that we are usually the slaves of our
individual and limited outlook, but our capacity is unlimited, and, if we can
get rid of ahankāra, if we can put
ourselves at the service of the Infinite without any reservation of
predilection or opinion, there is no reason why our realisation should be
limited—tasmin vijnate sarvam vijnātam.
He being known, all can be known. To understand Scripture, it is not enough to
be a scholar, one must be a soul. To know what the dŗştā saw one must oneself have dŗşti,
sight, and be a student if not a master of the knowledge—atha parā yaya tad akşaram adhigamyate. Grammar, etymology,
prosody, astronomy, metaphysics, logic, all that is good; but afterwards there
is still needed the higher knowledge by which the Immutable is known.
A Democratic and Secular National Government
Therefore let us rather ask a question if a democratic and secular ideal can satisfy
the spiritual requirement, it possibly becoming instrumental to achieve the
objective of a spiritualised society according to the criteria we have been
proposing for it. The answer is obvious, that the way things stand it does not.
Nor can it be the other way round, every individual of the society subscribing
to the ideal of Integral Society; perhaps that ‘every’ might be a wrong
expectation also. The gap is there, and one goes only by the via media. Only a
practical way has to be found, practical way founded on the basics of things. More
importantly, it is not that the entire humanity is waiting for the spiritual Dawn
or the Vedic Usha, or the rise and flowering of the Spiritual Consciousness.
That will be an erroneous belief. The Rig Veda’s here and now, on this sacred Earth, (I.113.8.19) is a far cry and
is meant only for those who are open to it, who have prepared themselves for
it, are advanced on the path, have done qualifying tapasya. If this is so, then
what happens to the rest of the people who are not aware of any tapasya? Yet
that awakening has to come. But it is a long and painstaking work and only the
few by their national tapasya can make them ready for it. In any case, it is unlikely
to be realised in the present environmental umbrella of the Secular Democratic
set-up which simply is politically or materialistically motivated. Rather one
can argue that this system of governance is actively engaged in destroying the
existing spiritually motivated not institutions but ideals. There are negative
effects of the present formulations and one cannot ignore them.
We have to perforce think about an appropriate social comprehensive instrument
to spring forth on the Earth, anywhere on its geography, and undertake the
struggle on the material physical level as well. No doubt, it will be inspired
and guided from the "propitious spot" though physically and
geographically it might be situated in
A practical choice has to be made
on the strength of certain considerations such as ageless history and eternal principles
of social organisation in its full operation. It can be well surmised that last
several Yugas historically reported such a movement, that it existed long
before, even prior to the times of the Gita, existed on this land having a propitious
"spot" to support it. The question is, if it can be recovered and
adapted to the present time, the eternal spirit re-expressing itself in the new
zeitgeist.
An International Congress is
scheduled to be held in Auroville during the early week of January 2010 with
the theme of Spirituality beyond Religions exploring a new path to a universal cultural
dialogue. The announcement says the following: “There is an emergent trend
worldwide to explore the integral momentum of spirituality. There is a growing
awareness that although religious traditions continue to support ethical
values, individuals need and are seeking a deeper personal understanding of the
spiritual dimension. There is an urgent need to account for an experience of transcendence
that is inherent in the universal human potential referred to as ‘spiritual’.
The Enlightenment (Aufklärung) in the West, which founded the high ideal of
political and social freedom for individuals in society, should now be combined
with the perennial enlightenment as taught in the East to guarantee the
spiritual freedom of the human being and promote the suitable evolutionary
structures to support this.” We await the outcome of deliberations with great
interest, with the hope that it will be a move towards defining Integral
Spirituality in terms of its immediate pragmatics.
We have been often reminded about the
negative aspects of, say, Hindutva and religious dogmatism turning into
fundamentalism, but the light that can show the way has not been found. As we
shall proceed, we might have a brief look at the few major achievements
pertaining to Integral Spirituality. The effort is to indicate its quality in
acquiring, maintaining, nurturing and developing spiritual evolutionary
knowledge to be carried into future living societies. This effort and its
motivation cannot be belittled. It can as well claim that it has provided the
first resources of spirituality to the entire world. Quite a gain indeed! Now
it needs to be furthered.
Warren Hastings, the first colonial
Governor General of