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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Singing our Past glory- a popular refrain

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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