At the outset one is confronted with the question -- What is culture? Some people believe that dance, music and drama are the culture of a people, while others include among these, the spirit of nationalism.
But to my mind culture has a much more comprehensive meaning.
Culture may be regarded as the characteristic way of life lived by a people under the influence of certain fundamental values: forms of art, idiom and literature, institution and customs, refinement of conduct and the art of living, as a whole, are but the expression of such a way.
Culture is the very essence of the life of a people constituting as it does the deep roots and the sap of the tree that give them their stature and strength.
The persuasive power of culture can be seen in all aspects of a people’s life -- in its social forms, its economic organization, political institutions, religion, art and philosophy.
Nowadays it is considered progressive to scoff at conservatism as an obstacle to progress, but could anyone deny that the traditional culture of a people colours their entire outlook of life? Culture represents the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors flowing imperceptibly through the ages. To a race or people it is flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone.
To escape its subtle grip on the mind will be about as easy as to forswear one’s ancestry.
INDIAN CULTURE
"The human individual consists of body, mind and spirit. Each requires its proper nutriment. The body is kept trim by food and exercise, the mind is informed by science and criticism, and the spirit is illumined by art and literature, philosophy and religion."1
The culture of a people, therefore, represents the progress or development in all these fields, of body, mind and spirit.
But whereas in the culture of the west the dominant influence is the mental category, in India, the Spiritual category predominates. So much so, that the history of Indian culture may very well be the history of its religious evolution. There is no aspect of life in the Indian scene in any period of its history which was not influenced by and harmonized with the religion of the day.
Such is the evidence of the great mass of literature handed down to us from very ancient times -- The Vedas, Upanishads, Sastras, the Smritis and Puranas and the two great epics -- the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. From these we learn that, "from the beginning of her history India has adored and idealized, not soldiers and statesmen, not men of science and leaders of industry, not even poets and philosophers, who influence the world by their deeds or by their words, but those rarer and more chastened spirits, whose greatness lies in what they are and not what they do; men who have stamped infinity on the thought and life of the country, men who have added to the invisible forces of goodness in the world. To a world given over to the pursuit of power and pleasure, wealth and glory, they declare reality of the unseen world and the call of the Spiritual life. Their self possession and self command, their strange deep wisdom, their exquisite courtesy, their humility and gentleness of soul, their humanity proclaim that the destiny of man is to know himself and thereby further the universal life of which he is an integral part."
Indian culture and civilization have survived the vicissitudes of thousands of years, when the cultures of its ancient contemporaries are now merely historical curiosities.
Surely this culture must possess some subtle power, which the others had not, which enabled it to maintain its essential characteristics through the ages. In our own times, we see that even the proselytizing creeds backed by political power, have been unable to make any remarkable inroads on its position in the hearts and minds of the people. Therefore let us investigate what is this power, this subtle force which is the soul of Indian Culture, which has made it as it were, immortal? What is responsible for its endurance, and constancy through the ages, under all conditions, in the ups and downs of its checkered history and still continues to influence the direction and content of progressive thought?
In carrying out this investigation we will find that every enduring aspect of Indian Culture stems from one central concept, namely, that "all this creation is an evolution of God, by Himself and of Himself, woven into an infinite variety of name and shape very much in the manner of a spider spreading its web; and that all of it is sustained by the same force: and that all of it involutes back and gets absorbed into that force at the end. The essential part of a living being is thus a spark that has become separate from the parent fire."3 This period of separation is conditioned by a veil of ignorance concerning the true and divine nature of the self, "as the flame is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror by dust, and the embryo by the amnion."4 This conditioned being, the Jiva or Ego, is born again and again, "taking on new bodies, like a person casting off old clothes and putting on new ones."5 Final release is the cessation of "this pain-filled, transient succession of births and deaths."6 Then the separated spark gets back to its home, in a condition of merger or as near to it as makes no difference. The finality is irrevocable, ungraspable by the mind of man, and is full of a positive and permanent bliss from which all fear is conspicuous by absence.
Several interesting consequences flow from this theory:
Firstly, it places the life of a person in the perspective of a long duration, in which it is but an incident, a link in a long chain. It takes a great deal of effort and several lives before this life chain is snapped and release is obtained. "After many lives the wise one attains to me"7 says Lord Krishna.
Secondly, since the aim of life is not to be born again, life itself is pain-filled, rather than pleasant. This is one point on which all the religions of India -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism -- are agreed. Thirdly, the objective to be attained by life is placed beyond the narrow compass of a single life, into a future which cannot be readily grasped by the mind and brain. Fourthly, life is but a preparation and an opportunity, and nothing of unalterable value is attained during its tenure.
There is a single minded devotion, in this doctrine, to an aim which is clear and pin-pointed towards a grand consummation. It unites all efforts into a single harmony. To the great men of India, there was no question of dividing knowledge into several parts. All knowledge had only one aim. This explains why religion and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, music and drama, came to mingle in a common stream. It also explains why knowing about truth was considered insufficient and it was compulsory for one to realize it in one’s own life. Philosophy thereby became a way of life and not merely a way of thought. Religion in turn, became a search for truth, for the reality behind appearance, and this knowledge was considered necessary for salvation. So much so, that truth became a reality to be experienced and not something to be merely known by logical processes, ignorance became sin, knowledge became bliss, and life became the laboratory to experiment and test the tenets of philosophy.
Religion, therefore, was a way of life. Its essential feature was practice of Sadhana. Lord Krishna himself, after explaining to Arjuna the paths of action without desire, renunciation and devotion, and even after showing him His divine form, says "thus has wisdom, more secret than secrecy itself, been declared unto thee by me. Reflect on it fully, and then act as you desire."8 The goal of life is, therefore, an individual realization by each person in his own way of the truth which is at once knowledge and bliss. There was no Dharma which was evolved out of all of this to facilitate the attainment of the aim of life, by the cultivation of body, mind and spirit.
I have already stated that the goal of living is final release from the bonds of births and deaths, which is called Moksha or salvation. But in the pursuit of this Spiritual goal the needs for the body and mind are not to be neglected; at the same time, the satisfaction of these needs must be in harmony with the pursuit of the ultimate goal. Therefore, the ancients prescribed that the acquisition of wealth and property called "Artha", and the enjoyment of sense-pleasure called "Kama", should be carried out according to certain rules or codes, which are comprehensively described as "Dharma." So the four main objectives of life became Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha.
Dharma is a difficult word to define, or translate. It has a comprehensive import, and deals with practically the whole life of man in his relations with his fellow men, God and the animals, and claims to regulate the conduct of man in all these relations. It includes what may be called self-regarding duties, as duties to others, duties to the ancestors as well as deities to the living beings. While the origin of Dharma could be traced to the authority of the scriptures, in actual practice the validity of derivative literature such as the Smritis and Sutras, "the examples of the lives of virtuous people and the approval of an enlightened conscience are also admitted as Dharma"9 it will be seen that "practicing of one’s Dharma or duty is a way of attaining Salvation."10 Then what is one’s duty? It is the prescribed way for one’s caste like trade for the Vaishyas and religious sacrifices for Brahmins or the duty prescribed for one’s station in life, like advice for the master; or the duty of one’s stage in life like study for the youth and renunciation for the Sanyasi, all however subject to the flexible authorities, mentioned before.
"Every man must choose that walk of life which suits his own nature."11 An important aspect of Dharma is the theory of Karma. The Karma theory from very ancient times exerted a profound influence on Indian Culture. This is a natural consequence of, and can only be understood in relation to, the belief in many lives and in making the cessation of living the aim of life. There is a mistaken idea that the theory of Karma stifles initiative and smothers all progress in a depressing blanket of fatalism. This is not true, either in doctrine or experience. The Karma theory makes a person himself solely responsible for the good and evil that befall him, thus making for self-improvement. "Destiny or Providence is only one of many factors which influence human life."12 The Karma theory is consistent with the belief in a Just God, not withstanding the difference in distribution among people of faculties and talents, prosperities and misfortunes, which we see every day. The urges of life are powerful, and the theory of Karma only gives them a right direction by explaining evil and good in terms of one’s own conduct. So much for Dharma.
Artha and Karma, are mundane, and while their place in life is not neglected, they are not permanent; they distract the mind from the main pursuit and make man the servant of his senses.
We may summarize the ancient prescription of life by saying that the aim of life is not to be born again into this world of fleeting pleasure and enduring sorrows, and that while human effort should be directed towards learning and body conservation during boyhood, and next towards earning and spending during manhood, there does come a stage when a man has to retreat from society and practice a probationary period of withdrawal, finally ending it in the tranquillity of utter renunciation. It all accords with the growing bodily strength and mental adventurousness in the early part of life, and the deterioration of the body and the development of the inner faculties during the later years of man’s existence.
Many consequences, individual and social flow from the Indian way of life. Many problems relating to liberty of thought and action have to be explained in its context. On the surface it seems metaphysical, other-worldly, impractical and unconcerned with the mass of people, hidebound in orthodoxy; but in fact, it prompted the utmost freedom of thought and gave to the conception of freedom a noble meaning and significance.
To begin with, it gave to each individual a unique problem which he had to solve in his own way, notwithstanding all the codes and rules. It made the individual important and the society a service unit for him. This led to two important results.
The first was that it made thought free. No culture has welcomed new modes of thought, new religions, contradictions of tradition, opposing heresies with such avidity as Indian culture. The only method of conversion that has ever been employed in India is that of argument and persuasion. Sankara destroyed the vestiges of Buddhism overt a whole continent by this method. The sanctity that was attached to any dogma was subjected to an appeal to reason and to the demands of the mind. religious persecution has been unknown in India. She has never put forward any claims to a monopoly of truth. Indeed, she rejected the claim of the human mind to perceive anything more than a small aspect of truth. While, therefore, the ancients created a social structure and enforced conformity in matters of external conduct, thought has always been free. The persistence of old thought processes in modern minds like of those of Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi is not by compulsion or dogma but by the test of experience.
The second consequence was that the relation of man to man was of little importance in the face of the necessity of making a proper relation of man with God. The unique problem of salvation makes of each living being a microcosm which is self-complete. The paramount need is for solitude and the withdrawal from the noise of society as a preliminary to the practice of Yoga, which is a complete inhibition of one’s mind.
Enough has been said to establish beyond doubt that Indian culture has its roots in the eternal spiritual values and not in the transient material. This is the secret of its vitality. This is the reason why it contrives to endure when its ancient contemporaries are no more.
This does not mean that other cultures do not possess spiritual values. In fact all cultures including the Indian do possess both material and spiritual values, but the difference lies in which one is made subsidiary to the other.
Many cultures of the West particularly, have laid emphasis on material development, and spiritual values were subordinated to this. But in Indian culture the reverse is true. All material development had to be harmonized with the spiritual aim, and therefore, the whole of Indian life flows in a single stream towards one goal.
The aspects of culture in all sectors, which have survived are those which harmonized with this spiritual aim, in fact all those things which contribute to the spiritual uplift of man, are the ones which will endure for all time. Let us examine some of these important sectors:
Nationalism: "The love for the Motherland has always played an important part in Indian life from the very beginning. The Atharva Veda has one of the most powerful patriotic hymns in the literature of mankind. This sacred land where the ancestors lived and performed righteous deeds has attained sanctity from the earliest times.
This conception found concrete expression in pilgrimage to the various teerthas in the country and in prayers associated with the mountains, rivers, and the ancient cities of India -- prayers which are still chanted by millions. Manusmriti associated Dharma - the law of righteousness - with Aryavarta, a term which was progressively applied to the whole country in its ideal aspect. Vishnu Purana ecstatically praises the Land where the Gods themselves love to be born and Janmabhoomi -- the Motherland -- is declared higher than heaven. The Puravas deal with the different teerthas of the country with devotion. In this way the whole culture of India revolved around the worship of India as the Motherland, giving to the collective mind an emotional attitude towards not only the country as a land, but as a historical, cultural, social and spiritual unit."13
Politics: "Centuries before the beginning of the Christian era, our ancestors experimented successfully with diverse type of polity. Patriarchal society, tribal organization, aristocratic and republican forms of government, decentralization of power with villages as complete self-governing units -- all these were known to them."14 "Not only were different types of government tried in early times but political thought was keeping pace with constitutional evolution. The Institutes of Manu. Sukra Niti, Kautiliya’s Arthasastra contain valuable ideas about the elements of sovereignty, the limbs of the administration, tasks of government and so forth. In fact Kautilya spoke of the science of government -- Danda Niti -- as one of the four important sciences."15
"We are prone to wax enthusiastic over the welfare state as though it is a grand discovery of our own day, but the fact is that is the idea was quite familiar to our great rulers of the past. They fully realized that no government is worth its name which does not steadily pursue the ideals of social justice and the common good.
Describing in his ‘Rhagu Vansa’ the attitude of King Dilipa to his subjects, Kalidasa says ‘he collected taxes from the people for their benefit alone; does not the sun draw water from the earth only to return it to the earth a thousand-fold?"16
"The beneficent influence of Indian culture on secular activities is vividly illustrated by the history of Indian colonization overseas in the early Middle Ages. Colonization in the modern era has led invariably to political domination over the colony and to the exploitation of the natural wealth of the country. But the Indian colonization of South-East Asia was in the nature of a cultural penetration: Indian religion, philosophy, art and architecture were all eagerly received by the indigenous inhabitants of these regions. Though great kingdoms arose overseas they were autonomous and were not interfered with by the rulers of India. Vestiges of the old Indian civilization and culture are to be found in Siam, Malaya, Cambodia, Sumatra and Java, even to this day. Look at the very names of the empires that flourished in South-East Asia through a thousand years - Cambodia, Sri Vijaya, Sailendra, Majapahit. They are Sanskritic.
The story of Greater India is thus a story of cultural diffusion untainted by political domination, as such it exemplifies the ennobling impact of culture on the political scene."17 "How the political activities of New India are influenced by an age-long culture? It is interesting to recall the ideals of peace and toleration, of ‘live and let live’ are embedded in the Indian tradition.
An ancient Sanskrit hymn breathers this prayer:
‘Let us all be happy and free from disease. Let us wish well of one another. Let there be no misery or affliction for mankind.’ The life of the Buddha highlights this lofty vision of the goal of mankind.
In our own day the glory of our spiritual heritage has been worthily maintained in the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi - the great apostle of Ahimsa."18 It is generally accepted that the ordinary standards of ethics are not applied in the sphere of politics. "A line of conduct which could ordinarily be regarded as thoroughly reprehensible in the individual becomes praiseworthy when it is adopted for the country or nation. ‘The end justifies the means’ seems to be the main axiom of politics. Mahatma Gandhi, on the other hand, followed the maxim that ‘the means should justify the end’ holding that, even if the end were noble, it would become enriched should the wrong means be chosen for attaining it. He has done more to elevate the tone of public life in his day than any other national leader. And we shall do well to remember that he only turned the searchlight of our ancient spiritual culture on the rough and tumble of politics and tried to cleanse it of all its dross and filth. Sarvodaya the uplift of all was the vision that inspired him."19
Music
Music plays an important part in Indian culture. The oldest record of utterances of the human race are found in the Vedas, and these for the most part are hymns set to music which were chanted by the Rishis of old. The highest place of honor is given to Sama Veda, - the word Sama, means "Song of praise." "Of Vedas I am the Sama Veda" says Lord Krishna.20 The musical quality of the Vedas, no less than their spiritual content, ensured their survival, for thousands of years before being converted into writing, and they are considered to be the rock of ages - of India’s culture to this day.
Music is rightly regarded as the language of the soul and the best medium for communion between man and God. To use the medium of music for rousing the baser or animal passions is something abhorrent to Indian culture. Even if such forms were encountered from time to time they were of temporary duration and in most instances could be traced to the influence of alien cultures: this form of musical expression serves no valid purpose and is used by the selfish to exploit the baser instincts of men for personal gain.
Drama:
Dramatic art has made no small contribution to Indian culture. The value of a dramatic work was assessed not only on the literary genius of the author, or the intricacy of the plot but principally on the contribution it made to spiritual growth. The most cherished of the ancient works are those which reflect a high spiritual growth. The most cherished of the ancient works are those which reflect a high spiritual content. Even in modern times the most popular works played on the stage or screen are those which portray high spiritual ideals - love (of the pure kind as opposed to lust) friendship, loyalty, devotion and other "divine qualities"23 all placed in a setting which not only entertain and amuse but never fail to inspire patrons, with high spiritual ideals.
Poetry and Literature:
The spiritual emphasis in these need no elaboration. Almost all, if not all, of the surviving ancient poetry and literature have been built up around the idea of facilitating and encouraging spiritual growth. The Vedas and Upanishads reflect the genius of the ancients, and served as inspiration for later poetry and literature which are popular up to this day. These are the best represented by "the Ramayana and Mahabarata, which are regarded as the classics of the nation. The characters that figure in them have become one with the lives of the people. For thousands of years now the whole of Indian life has been as it were, consecrated by the heroes and heroines of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, which are regarded as the classics of the nation. The characters that figure in them have become one with the lives of the people. For thousands of years now the whole of Indian life has been as it were, consecrated by the heroes and heroines of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, like Rama, Sita Dharmaputra (Yudhisthira) Draupadi, Bhisma, Arjuna, Hanuman. The characters of ‘no other classics in the world have thus blended with the lives of the people."24 Modern writers and poets continue to be inspired by these treatises which seem to possess an attraction for the human mind, which remains unaffected by the passage of time.
Tagore:
No paper on Indian culture can be considered complete without reference to the greatest poet of our time, Rabindranauth Tagore or "Rabi Babu" as he was fondly called by millions of his countrymen.
If the entire time at our disposal today was devoted to this one topic, it would be far from adequate to do justice to the subject. I would recommend that at a subsequent seminar, this be included as a special topic, and that someone steeped in the Tagore tradition be invited to present a paper on it. I shall ask you to be content with a small passage from what a great English poet had to say about his famous work, "Gitanjali."
"These verses will not lie in little well printed books upon ladies’ tables, who turn the pages with indolent hands that they may sigh over a life without meaning, which is yet all they can know of life, or be carried about by students at the university to be laid aside when the work of life begins, but as the generations pass, travellers will hum them on the highway and men rowing up the rivers. Lovers, while they await one another, shall find in murmuring them, this love of God a magic gulf wherein their own bitter passing may bathe and renew its youth. At every moment the hearth of this poet flows outward to these without derogation or condescension, for it has known that they will understand; and it has filled itself with the circumstances of their lives. The traveller in the red-brown clothes that he wears that dust may not show upon him, the girl searching in her bed for the petals fallen from wreath of her royal lover, the servant or the bride awaiting the Master’s home-coming in the empty house, are images of the hearth turning to God. Flowers and rivers, the blowing of conch shells, the heavy rain of the Indian July, or the parching heat, are images of the moods of that heart in union and in separation; and a man sitting on a boat upon a river playing upon a flute, like one of those fully of mysterious meaning in a Chinese picture, is God himself. A whole people, a whole civilization, immeasurably strange to us, seems to have been taken up into this imagination and yet we are not moved because of its strangeness, but because we have met our image, as though we had walked in Rossetti’s willow wood, or heard, perhaps for the first time in literature, our voice in a dream."25
Tyoharas:
(Occasions deemed worthy of celebration or commemoration). The Indian calendar is full of these some of which are more popular than others. This topic too, I think deserves to be treated as a special subject which will enable one to deal with it in great detail. Inasmuch as they form a concrete expression of culture of the people, mention must be made here.
One thing which is common to all, regardless of time, of origin or the occasion which gave rise to it, is that the main purpose for commemoration is the spiritual value. The material aspect is always subsidiary. Have you ever asked yourself the question, why is it that in every Indian Tyohara, one is enjoined to do some form of spiritual exercise or discipline. Either fasting, keeping awake or doing pujas and havan or perhaps doing all of them. The emphasis is always on the spiritual rather than the material.
This emphasizes two things, firstly that the real reason for these occasions is to provide opportunities for enhancement of Spiritual growth, and secondly the reason for their survival is because of this spiritual aspect. It also sounds the warning that if the spiritual aspect was disregarded to, then the extinction of this aspect of culture will surely follow.
It is the nature of things spiritual to be eternal and permanent and the nature of things material to be transitory and temporary.
References and Acknowledgments
1. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan - East and West in Religion, page 45
2. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan - Hibbert Journal, volume 35, page 26.
3. Brichadaranyakopanishad - Chapter II.1.20 also Bhagvata Purva VIII.3.3
4. Bhagvad Gita III: 38
5. Bhagvad Gita II: 22
6. Bhagvad Gita IX: 33
7. Bhagvad Gita VII: 19
8. Bhagvad Gita XVIII: 63
9. Mahabharata, Vana Parava, Chapter:312, Verse 115
10. Bhagvad Gita XVIII: 46
11. Bhagvad Gita XVIII: 47
12. Bhagvad Gita XVIII: 14
13. K.M. Munshi - Nationalism and Culture (Article)
14. S. Thotadri Iyengar - Cultural Roots of Indian Politics (Article)
15. S. Thotadri Iyengar - Cultural Roots of Indian Politics (Article)
16. S. Thotadri Iyengar - Cultural Roots of Indian Politics (Article)
17. S. Thotadri Iyengar - Cultural Roots of Indian Politics (Article)
18. S. Thotadri Iyengar - Cultural Roots of Indian Politics (Article)
19. S. Thotadri Iyengar - Cultural Roots of Indian Politics (Article)
20. Bhagvad Gita X
21. Bhagvad Gita X
22. Bhagvad Gita X
23. Bhagvad Gita XVI: 1 - 3
24. Talks on the Gita, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Page 1
25. W.B. Yeats - Introduction to the "Gitanjali"
Special acknowledgment to article, "Our Way of Life" by S.Y. Krishnaswami.
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