sumitsehrawat
April 15th, 2005, 02:51 PM
India is proud to own a vast treasure of spiritual wisdom. It is a rich legacy handed down to posterity over centuries in the form of religious texts and exquisite idols. These constitute our wealth by virtue of which our country has come to be regarded as the temple and repository of culture and learning by the world. It is the duty of every Indian to safeguard the sanctity of the shrines and religious institutions at all costs.
While Indians are giants in the field of spiritualism, they are dwarfs in politics as compared with powerful nations. "We can never outgrow our foreign counterparts politically and it is therefore necessary to maintain our traditionally cultural and spiritual values. India can win over conquerors culturally and not politically," says a non-Indian historian.
In spite of their ancient and enviable religious heritage, Indians behave like the proverbial swine which ignore the pearls cast before them. Instead of preserving the glorious treasure of culture bequeathed to them, people hanker after ideas imported from the West in the mistaken notion that whatever learnt from the West is the best. Indians have neglected the scriptures and religious texts and given up rituals and other ceremonies. The irony is that what they have discarded as useless has come to be regarded as precious by us.
In this connection, Sri Sugunendra Thirtha Swami (Head of Udupi Puthige Math) cites the story of a monkey which managed to take away a few gems from a temple, climb a tree and sit on one of its branches. A clever man, hitting on a master plan to retrieve the gems, aimed a few pebbles at the monkey. The enraged animal in turn threw down the gems, which the wayfarer collected and walked away. "Our present plight is in no way better than that of the monkey. We are selling our valuable idols to foreigners and exporting our sacred literature. The foreigners admire our cultural saga whereas we clasp to our bosom as God-sent blessings, what they throw away", he said.
The western people who are endowed with erudition, admire our treasures. They regard out idols and scriptures as priceless. Hence we should take care to safeguard our age-old spiritual values. If, on the other hand, the present state of affairs is allowed to continue, then, even as Buddhism which is near-extinct in the land of its birth is flourishing elsewhere, Hinduism may also share the same fate. Our scriptural lore, our bronzes and icons ought to be maintained well, the Swami said.
July 6, 1993
The Hindu
While Indians are giants in the field of spiritualism, they are dwarfs in politics as compared with powerful nations. "We can never outgrow our foreign counterparts politically and it is therefore necessary to maintain our traditionally cultural and spiritual values. India can win over conquerors culturally and not politically," says a non-Indian historian.
In spite of their ancient and enviable religious heritage, Indians behave like the proverbial swine which ignore the pearls cast before them. Instead of preserving the glorious treasure of culture bequeathed to them, people hanker after ideas imported from the West in the mistaken notion that whatever learnt from the West is the best. Indians have neglected the scriptures and religious texts and given up rituals and other ceremonies. The irony is that what they have discarded as useless has come to be regarded as precious by us.
In this connection, Sri Sugunendra Thirtha Swami (Head of Udupi Puthige Math) cites the story of a monkey which managed to take away a few gems from a temple, climb a tree and sit on one of its branches. A clever man, hitting on a master plan to retrieve the gems, aimed a few pebbles at the monkey. The enraged animal in turn threw down the gems, which the wayfarer collected and walked away. "Our present plight is in no way better than that of the monkey. We are selling our valuable idols to foreigners and exporting our sacred literature. The foreigners admire our cultural saga whereas we clasp to our bosom as God-sent blessings, what they throw away", he said.
The western people who are endowed with erudition, admire our treasures. They regard out idols and scriptures as priceless. Hence we should take care to safeguard our age-old spiritual values. If, on the other hand, the present state of affairs is allowed to continue, then, even as Buddhism which is near-extinct in the land of its birth is flourishing elsewhere, Hinduism may also share the same fate. Our scriptural lore, our bronzes and icons ought to be maintained well, the Swami said.
July 6, 1993
The Hindu