Fallacy of the White man's burden and insights of the Nyagrodha seed in the Upanishads

The primitive man was physical and so his faith was also in physical, visible things. The external nature, the Sun, the Moon, the forest… all provided him the first glimpse of the infinite and thus his rituals, symbols and everything was related to the Nature. A sense of superior world or worlds, powers, and some means to call them down to solve day to day problems was an essential part of their religion. These things are common throughout the history but the forms have undergone remarkable changes. Bhagvad Gita also acknowledges calling of the higher powers to solve problems or to remove distress. Arta and Artharthi bhakta come in this category. As the man grows outwardly, the ways and means of doing a thing become more and more sophisticated dignified and rationalized, but the essence may remain same. Vedic people accepted the act, the ritual of physical sacrifice as the central process. ‘However crude the notions attached to it, this idea of necessity of sacrifice did express obscurely the first law of the being. Because it was based on that constant interchange between the individual and the universal powers of the cosmos, which covertly support all the processes of the life and develop the action of the Nature. Almost all Northeastern tribes sacrifice pigs, goats and Mithuns in their festivals, and the meat is shared by the whole village. Each person or group may be given a particular part of it as per his role in the community. May be functional unity and interdependence of the entire village is inculcated through this ritual. As far as the objection to cruelty involved in systematic killing of an animal and its linking to overall insensitivity in life is concerned it may be noted that such cruelty is not rare in the most modern civilizations of today either. Also sacrifice is not necessarily linked to cruelty. Yajurveda contains a hymn of the meaning as follows; O knife, please do not hurt the animal. Seems a paradox, a contrast…but Indian culture specializes in harmony of contrasts. All over the world there are tribal gods and when tribes used to fight with each other there gods also used to fight. In most of the cases one tribe used to win over the others and their god became supreme god. These gods were having all vices, all idiosyncrasies, and childishness. We must remember Swami Vivekananda’s great explanation about this – `One’s god evolves as the man evolves.’ But India had a different destiny and here alone came the great revelation: Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha vadanti.’ And the whole history of the race which followed for centuries was nothing but different manifestations of the one firm conviction: that which exists is One and sages call it by different names. All over the world there are elements of nature worship, animal sacrifices, symbolism and mysticism. But here alone it got s deeper psychic meaning. There is no polytheism or idolatry in India as Europeans label and declare it. For almost everyone knows that these forms are only symbols leading to the One that is beyond. In the next stage of the human evolution came the intellect, the reasoning and this is one dominant idea in the European mind. It is also said that all religions including Christianity have eastern link if not origin and these religions failed to spiritualize Europe. Churchianity and Papacy is not a religion but a sophisticated, intellectualized, organized barbarism of the older tribal life. Here again India had a different destiny for ‘every attempt to broaden the life intellectually was followed by deepening of the life spiritually.’ This was the period of the Upanishads, Vedanta and therefore they say that India was saved. And all the later development was always involving the double current, right brain and left brain, broadening intellectually and deepening spiritually, analytical ruthlessness and poetic sweetness, creative intuition and critical intelligence… to whatever extent possible, there was always an attempt to harmonize, to synchronize, and though it was never as perfect as intended and as it was done originally in Vedanta, yet this effort ensured that India will remain India. Is there anything that is linking all the Indians? Is there anything which we can call as Indianness? What is that by knowing which we can know this infinite variation? Kasminno bhagavo Vijnate Sarvam idam vijnatam bhavati iti. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, ‘The perpetual notion which through every change attributed the foundation of all our culture to the Rishis, whatever its fabulous forms and mythical ascriptions, contains a real truth and veils a sound historic tradition. It reflects the fact of a true initiation and the unbroken continuity between this great primitive past and riper, but hardly greater spiritual development of our historic culture.’ Chandogya Upanishad contains a story of a rishi telling this subtle truth in a symbolic way to his student: ‘Bring a fruit of a Nyagrpdha tree.’ asked the rishi. ‘Here it is sir’ said a student. ‘Break it.’ … the student broke it in two parts. ‘What do you see in it?’ ‘Number of tiny seeds sir’ replied the student. ‘Break one of them’ the rishi asked. .. ‘What do you see in it?’ He enquired again. ‘Nothing sir’ was the puzzled student’s reply. ‘You see nothing Oh dear, but there is a mighty Nyagrodha tree inside it. Have Intellectual Faith O amiable one.’ Shraddha...shraddha ..faith is needed Somya!