Pride of ancestry is the hope
for the future. India has it in great measure and justifiably so, despite all
the false history propagated to the contrary by our invaders and our own home
grown betrayers in various fields/walks of life.
Having said that to be always
preening and patting ourselves with almost a nostalgic ethnocentric pride, especially
laboriously staking claim for our contributions, our ancientness etc, announces
a sense of complex which portrays us as pathetic attention seekers. It also sounds
as if we are considered weak and therefore need to keep repeating our great
feats and past glory at every juncture, every forum and opportunity.
Truth always finds its own
way to manifest, however historians may attempt selectively to highlight or
hide it. While the whole world knows Columbus as a great discoverer, without
any doubt, the world also gradually came to know that every discovery of his [though
he was not responsible for it] ended up enslaving and killing many human beings
who were otherwise leading a happy life. Even if European history books written
with excessive emphasis of world wars, industrial revolution, French revolution
etc the contributions of ancient Greek civilization, Roman Empire etc can never
be overlooked.
Our greatest weakness was
lack of documentation, failing to propagate at the right time [not after many
centuries have passed by], fail to do and/or promote contextually relevant and
most import thing [prioritizing first things first] at specific junctures etc.
Of course, the last factor
mentioned above i.e. prioritizing contextually relevant thing was taken care
of, mostly, as if by some divine intervention, at crucial times through roles played by some great souls :-
Like Adi
Shankara who actually united the country psychologically and culturally by
unearthing many important concepts of Sanathana Dharma;
Like Swami Vivekananda
who brought to the notice of the Western world the great teachings of Sanathana
Dharma by opting to address them in their language and in the idiom that would
appeal to them, both these acts were timely;
Similarly the 68th
Sankaracharya of Kanchi Mutt popularly known as Mahaperiyava Sri
Chandrasekarendra saraswathy ensured the introduction of some parts of article
26 of The Indian Constitution which enable every Indian to worship and practice
his/her respective religion or sect, “Again,
when the Indian Constitution was being framed, Paramacharya called a well-known
Vedic scholar and asked him to meet Sardar Vallabhai Patel to pass on a message
from Him on the need for a vital provision in the Constitution to the effect
that the religious belief. This message was duly transmitted through a meeting
arranged by "The Hindu" with the visiting officials of the Indian
Government with the Vedic scholar deputed by Paramacharya. As a result Article
26 of the Constitution was enshrined and this extended constitutional
protection, not just to the major religions-Hinduism or Islam-but to every
sub-sect of these religion”-[ http://www.kamakoti.org/souv/5-52.html
];
After independence Sardar Vallabhai Patel ensured uniting the multiple
smaller kingdoms;
In the early 90s one man wanted to retire from politics and
moved away but he was inducted as Prime Minister Shri P.V.Narasimha Rao, who
for the first time, post Independence made parliamentarians know that, besides
politics, economic progress and activities towards that were also part of
Government;
Similarly recently when corruption, atrocities and anti –national activities
reached a saturation point, destiny of India has found in MODI a leader who has
a vision, intention, credentials, mandate etc to lead the nation to greater
heights.
So, in the present context
what India needs to do, is not to resort to singing the refrain of its past
glories but rather prioritize and concentrate, with wisdom, to progress in
domains that matter more at present like economic development which will take
care of better survival conditions for many, eradication of poverty to a very
great extent, generate employment, improve education and research in science, technology,
communication, infrastructure etc.
Once our status in this area
i.e. economic development improves, then, the world will listen to us and look
up to us, till then all our belated parading of our past glory, sometimes ad
nauseam, will sound as if we are trying hard to market ourselves as a great
glorious nation with a enviable past and it may also inadvertently divert the
attention of youth from concentrating on economic developmental activities.
Too much of addiction to past
glory will give a sense of false complacency and trap us in the quagmire of
ethnocentric adulation leading to despicable existence as has happened in the
case of the glorious Greece.
Scientists have named latest particle
discovery as HIGGS BOSON recognizing the great scientist BOSE of India about whom
many Indians do not know anything at all.
What was more interesting was
this psychological affliction of claiming credit and creating connection after
a thing is established, to which , with all due respects, even Sri Sri
Ravishankar of the Art of Living was susceptible, when he gave a lecture immediately
after announcement of results of Higgs-Boson particle results in Germany , read
here the transcript of that speech http://www.srisriwisdom.com/index.php/en/daily-satsang/96-wssstd-srisritalksabouttherecentlydiscoveredgodparticle-eng
Not that I am averse to know
and share the many great gems that exist in ancient Indian scriptures. In fact,
I have been requesting people to take up detailed study of DEVI BHAGAVATHAM
paying attention to probable esoteric references to unearth many hitherto unknown
mysteries.
Let us listen to lectures by
people like Shatavadhani Dr. R. Ganesh
http://www.culturalindia.org/data/rganesh.asp
who can pack in a single topic the entire gamut of India’s multi-faceted glory
or
people like Swami Atmapriyananda, [Vice Chancellor of
Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University since 2005] who explain in
very scientific terms synergizing our past glory with the necessity and methods
to apply it to present day requirements.
India's past glory does not require any promoters as it will automatically manifest itself at the appropriate time and place.
Here are some links that
throw light on some aspects of our past glory for all of us to know
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