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by Kanchan Banerjee
The Meaning of Culture
The primary goal in human life is survival, for which food and shelter are essential. Once these are met, we seek further requirements such as comfort, wealth, health and education. However, the ultimate quest for human beings lies beyond these creaturely needs in the search for truth, the aspiration to discover the reality of the universe. To completely fulfill our human potential requires that we transcend our physical and mental limitations to something infinite and eternal. Julian Huxley, in his article, ’Evolution After Darwin’ written on the centennial of Darwin’s ’The Origin of Species’, wrote: "Man’s most comprehensive aim is seen not as mere survival, not as numerical increase, not as increased complexity of organization or increased control over his environment, but as greater fulfillment -- the fuller realization of more possibilities by the human species collectively and more of its component members individually. Once greater fulfillment is recognized as man’s ultimate or dominant aim, we shall need a science of human possibilities to help guide the long course of psycho-social evolution that lies ahead."
We act according to the needs of our lives, the availability of resources and the nature of each individual. These actions could be for purely survival purposes or of a highly creative nature; these could be to satisfy our senses or the ego, or to help a needy person. All actions are ultimately intended to bring about mastery over our external as well as the internal nature. Our thoughts prompt us to act. We face a situation and, knowingly or unknowingly, our thoughts compel us to do what we ought to. These thoughts come through the prism of our world-view or philosophy of life.
Slowly, as we grow within, we learn to give up the ideology of ’survival of the fittest’ or ‘might is right’ and start to think about others. This is the first act of spirituality, the first step toward discovering the so-called ’Spirit’, the human spirit. One day we may start saying, "The entire universe is my family" - ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam!’ We transcend physical and mental limits and arrive at the spiritual realm. Thus we create philosophy of life, by the degree we understand the way the world works. Hegel said, "A civilization without philosophy is like a temple without the holy of holies." Just like drops of water forming a wave, we create some ideals of life, deeper thoughts, some behavioral patterns -- all are parts of the culture. Therefore, for survival, growth and sustenance we need a way of living. This way of living is nothing but culture. Living traditions that express the thinking, feeling, and living of a particular society are part of its culture. Individual culture is a unit of a national culture, which forms a civilization. According to Samuel Huntington, Eaton professor of the Science of Government and Director of the John M. Olin Institute of Studies at Harvard University: "Civilization is a cultural entity. Villages, regions, ethnic groups, nationalities, religious groups, all have distinct cultures at different levels of cultural heterogeneity - civilization is thus the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that distinguishes humans from other species."
UNESCO Chronicle May 1959 stated that, "Culture means the total accumulation of material objects, ideas, symbols, beliefs, sentiments, values and social forms which are passed on from one generation to another in any given society." Culture can be defined as the deepest insight about life and its highest aspirations, produced by the will in order to be the master of its inner and external nature. Culture, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, is ’discovery of the freedom of spirit’. His evaluation of a culture and a civilization is illuminating. He said: "True happiness in this world is the right terrestrial aim of man, and true happiness lies in the finding and maintenance of a natural harmony of spirit, mind and body. A culture is to be valued to the extent to which it has discovered the right key of this harmony and organized its expressive motives and movements. And a civilization must be judged by the manner in which all its principles, ideas, forms, ways of living work to bring that harmony out, manage its rhythmic play and secure its continuance or the development of its motives."
The above commentary leads us to focus on the Sanskrit words ’samskara’ and ’samskriti’, which refer to culture in the highest sense. Samskara is derived from ’sam’ (true to its Dharma) and ’kara’ (bringing about). Dharma is the higher potential and true nature of a thing, the spiritual potential of the human being as opposed to our simple material desires. Samskriti as the refined condition of a substance is contrasted to Prakriti, which refers to the vulgar or unrefined condition. Prakriti is the unrefined gold alloy, for example, while Samskriti is making it into a beautiful gold ornament. Samskriti therefore means ’the act of Samskara’ -- the sum total of all activities that bring a life into alignment with its Dharma. Samskriti can be understood as purification; making something better than it is in its undeveloped state. Samskriti provides the scope for growth, leading to the physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual progress that is hidden in each person. Each act that makes us stronger, wiser, and more open to the life spirit is part of Samskriti. This idea of culture goes beyond the enfoldment of our creaturely potentials to that of the Divine soul or Self within is, our higher Dharma which is that of eternal truth. Spirituality is merely the discovering of all-encompassing spirit of the world, the inner connected-ness of all. The basic reason why we should care for others is this understanding of inner connections, that’s why ‘helping others is helping ourselves!’ Dharma tells us nothing but to be mindful and aware of these connections and act accordingly.
Each act that makes us stronger, wiser, or more open to the life spirit is part of samskriti. Each act that make us adherent to our Dharma is a samskritic activity. ’Dharma rakshati rakshitah’: Dharma protects the one who protects Dharma - therefore our samskriti is our protector. Dharma and samskriti are the two sides of the same coin. A culture and a person of a culture is judged by the following criteria: how much is he/she balanced in thought, speech and action, are these aspects synchronous? If not, it is ’vikriti’ - deviation and corruption. Such an entity needs samskar -- purification and modification. We can even judge the essence of the culture of a society by looking at those individuals who are most respected within it, who represent its standard of excellence.
As a final observation in this vein, our acts of communicating and talking, our sense of ethics, our methods of entertainment, the food we eat, the books we read and the television programs we watch reveal our culture and at the same time help create it. If something stops us from growing or deviates from our true nature and threatens to bring about our downfall, we say that ’vikriti’ is prevalent and we must call on `samskriti’ to remove it.
We solve one problem of life today and another problem arises tomorrow. Why do these obstacles come on our way and why would we have a hard time moving on? Because we have not developed our inner motion properly, our path or Dharma is not well-grasped, our life-force is weak and we have not developed culture yet! The culture of a person should be able to protect her and her diversity, her uniqueness and at the same time it should be able to unite her with the rest of humanity to peacefully co-exist and to keep the flag of human progress waving.
How Is a Culture Formed?
An apple drops. A Newton views it. He discovers the hidden laws of nature. Scientists and engineers use these laws to invent new tools and machines to increase human comfort. A Henry Ford can create a culture of independence inspired by his vision of individual freedom: "every American must have a car." Similarly, A Karl Marx can see the suffering of the common masses and may come up with a world-view, based on which the culture of a Communist society and people is formed. The Buddha sees the suffering of mankind, searches for a remedy, tells people about it and a new culture is formed. So we see that for each powerful and long-lasting society, there is a vision or world-view or philosophy of life at its foundation. Similarly, a family, a community, a society, a nation creates a culture and joins the global human culture.
A society or a nation has traditions, customs, social norms, values and forms of creative expressions. All these belong to culture. Therefore, each individual is a constant creator of individual, national and world culture. Thinkers and philosophers of a society influence millions of people with their thoughts. Our parents and neighbors hand over their traditions and customs to us. This is our heritage. When we are children, our culture is almost nonexistent except as inherited through past karma. Slowly we grow up and strengthen ourselves by cultivating values and creating a path for our lives. This same principle applies to a particular society or a nation.
According to Sri Aurobindo, the expression of the highest human spirit or consciousness of life appears in the form of philosophy. This philosophy in turn manifests as three major aspects of life: a) Thoughts, ideals, upwardly-directed will and the soul’s aspirations, which normally lead in turn to various spiritual traditions and paths; many call these traditions and paths `religion’. Spiritual traditions are various ways of realizing the truth of life. Hindus have developed innumerable spiritual paths. As Swami Vivekananda said, "As many people - so many religions!" The highest philosophy and spiritual realizations are translated into special ways of living. b) Creative self-expression, intelligence, imagination and appreciative aesthetics; these in turn take the form of the arts. Our philosophy and ideals of life are expressed through creative aesthetics in the form of various arts, including literature. c) The society and the political system in which practical and outward formulation of the consciousness of life and its dynamic view of existence occurs. Our social customs, traditions, festivals, civic and political systems and social laws -- everything is founded upon the ideals and the values of the individual society. All these sociopolitical elements are integral parts of a culture.
Various Cultures of the World
In each society and culture, the basic needs of human beings are same. However, as the interests and tendencies of each culture vary, each gives more importance to one aspect of human life. Most probably it was Swami Vivekananda who said: "Each culture has, as it were, a basic idea to work out, a destiny to fulfill, a role to play in the world, and a contribution to make to the whole human civilization. A culture can flourish, only so long as it remains true to its original ideal. Until that ideal is destroyed a culture cannot die, nothing can kill it."
Each culture is viewed through the way it expresses itself. Its forms of expression are embedded in its religious practices, arts and literature, sciences, customs and sociopolitical systems. Cultures can be classified into three basic classes: spiritual, mental and material or physical. A culture whose main purpose is material progress, and which lives at a sensate plane only, is a material or physical culture. Where the highest goal of a people is mental or intellectual satisfaction, there exists a culture of intellect or the mind. Finally, the culture whose primary goal is spiritual attainment is a spiritual culture. A culture fitting into one of these categories might contain elements of the other two cultural types, but it may be judged easily by observing its predominant characteristic.
There are many cultures in the world. The distinct ones are Western, Hindu, Confucian, African and Middle Eastern. For lack of space here, we will discuss Western and Hindu culture only. Western culture has several strands. The first is the political and social ideas originating in the city-states of the ancient Greeks: their apprehension of the values of truth, beauty and faith in reason and intelligence. The second is the Roman dynamic spirit of formulation of administration and establishment of law and the scientific mind in search of truth. The third and final strand is the Christian ideas of the divinity of love and compassion and the brotherhood of mankind, as well as the Jewish values of righteousness and justice.
The Promethean spirit of human excellence was also a part of Hindu culture -- the Mahabharata itself is a testimony of it. Greece and Rome produced Socrates and Pythagoras, but these societies rejected them. Plato was also perceived as coming from a different world-view, while in reality he was trying to bring his people toward the concept of ’Man know thyself.’ People absorbed only his social views and did not understand his spiritual side.
This type of neglect rooted in a movement away from introspection slowed down the further upward movement of human spirit in the West. It created a vacuum and ultimately the Greek and Roman civilizations crumbled down under their own pressure. Then early Christianity came as a spiritual alternative, which soon put a bar on freedom of expression. Also, Christianity’s emphasis on belief, ’only path’ dogma and the inability to satisfy the rational mind stopped aspirations toward a search for the true ’inner universe.’ Christian theology took over spirituality and stopped all new experiments toward the inner science or the science of life. It inhibited the search for truth both outwardly and inwardly. It took many Galileos to sacrifice their lives for the search of truth, it took long time for science to overcome the loss of freedom. Once this freedom was returned after the Renaissance, people in the West put most of its energy into their search for truth in the external world. Therefore the West has become a field of actions toward the external world. This has become the West’s specialization and has produced the inventive geniuses. At the same time, the values of liberty, equity, democracy and the rule of law have flowered in the Western mind. The rejection of the theocratic states of old Europe and their oppression definitely strengthened these values. In last 100 years, Christianity has changed a lot and many of the sects within Christianity (e.g. Unitarian, Presbyterian) has reduced the burden of theology and dogma and focussed more on true spirituality of Christ.
Although the influences of Judeo-Christian religious ideas and Greco-Roman inspirations for higher human achievements are present in Western culture, still Western culture is predominantly material and the majority of its people live at a sensate plane. On the other hand, Hindu culture was spiritual throughout the ages, excepting periodic deviations because of foreign influence and a lack of inner strength, as occurs today. Hindus have seen the abode of the divine in everything, not confined in the temples alone, whereas Judeo-Christian tradition puts God in the church or temple only and Western materialist society abandons the spirit altogether by cutting off human potential at a sensate level, which tends to go outward only. Hindus would not kick something, a book (source of knowledge connected with divine Saraswati), money (source of wealth connected with divine Lakshmi) and even a tree, because the Divine is present in all things. Hindus would ask for forgiveness for stepping on earth, or for plucking a leaf from a plant. Western cultures, however, have encouraged people to exploit nature to an extent that continued existence becomes uncertain!
Any day, any time, a `survival of the fittest’ mentality combined with inventive power may turn out to be `survival of none.’ The stockpile of armaments held by various nations reminds us of the comments of both Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, that we are still living in the barbaric phase of our so-called civilization and that we are yet to be ’civilized’! This is the outcome of a material culture. Arnold Toynbe similarly said: "It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race."
Greco-Roman culture specialized in the subject of ’man in the society,’ or the external connections of human beings, whereas Hindus specialized in the ’human being in-depth,’ or the inner connections of human beings. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, former president of India, beautifully illustrates this when he said: "The ideal man of India is not the magnanimous man of Greece or the valiant knight of medieval Europe, but the free man of spirit, who has attained insight into the universal source by rigid discipline and practice of disinterested virtues, who has freed himself from the prejudices of his time and place. It is India’s pride that she has clung fast to this ideal and produced in every generation and in every part of the country, from the time of the Rishis of the Upanishads and Buddha to Ramakrishna and Gandhi, men who strove successfully to realize this ideal."
Hindu Culture
What are the core principles of the Hindu culture? Since the Dharma of the Self is divine, Hindus respect and revere all of creation as divine. Since the nature of the Divine is Sat-Chit-Ananda, therefore life has to be founded upon Sat: the True or Real, Chit: Consciousness and Ananda: bliss of love. This simple yet profound vision creates a totally different culture. Truthfulness, respect, tolerance, acceptance, ahimsa, honesty - all these great virtues were cultivated in people’s lives and a society with a high standard of culture was created.
Hindu culture discovered the concept of Dharma: the true nature of being and its paths, righteousness, the laws of life. Everyone is duty-bound to unfold his or her potential to the fullest. The concept of Isvara and Brahman (omnipresent all pervading supreme being) has been the creation of the highest contemplating minds, a concept to which modern physics is coming close to these days. The law of Karma is another great discovery, by which we are all bound together. Hindus literally believe that "we are the makers of our own destiny," what we want to be that we can become. Every action yields a result either positively or negatively affecting the person, family, community and the society. Dharma is the central pivot of this culture. Universality, humanism and absolute freedom or liberty are the pillars of the Hindu culture. As, Swami Vivekananda said: "Freedom is the first condition of growth," freedom from all limitations and attachments had taken the form of highest ideal in the concept of Mukti. Hindus have specialized in the discoveries of the inner world, the science of spirit, the science of consciousness.
Based on these principles Hindus have given birth to many spiritual paths, panths or sects, including Jainism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, including new groups like Swaminarayan. Hindus have created a vast literature and arts with everywhere the concept of spirituality is the central theme. To fulfill the path of Self-realization, Hindus have created many systems suitable for people of various physical, mental and spiritual capacity: Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, Hatha and Raja branches of Yoga are the highest achievements of this culture.
Yet it is a mistake to think that Hindus neglected material and mental needs. We must remember that Columbus was on his way to Bharat (India) not in search of God, but of gold. The British did not go to India for it’s vast and diverse natural beauty, but to add to their own material prosperity and to feed their own poor. Hindus developed shastras and vidyas, i.e. branches of knowledge and technology in the hundreds; from karma-yoga to kama-sutra, natya-shastra of music and dance to shilpa-shastra (arts and architecture), Rasayan (chemistry) to Ayurveda, Astronomy to mathematics to martial arts. Virtually in every possible field they have left great marks! Indian ships were the best till the 18th century. But the greatest contribution lies in the field of spirituality, the science of spirituality - Yoga.
Hindus tried to perfect everything by adding spiritual values. A soldier would not attack another soldier who was unarmed. They would not exploit nature and they coined the word "milking" instead. They were deeply aware of the importance of environmental harmony, not because of a biochemical concept of ecology, but owing to a vision of the entire universe as a living entity. This is called spiritualization. To be able to call an animal like a cow "mother" is spiritualization, as is to be able to call the Sun the giver of all life as Surya-dev or Lord Surya. To be able to express one’s identity with the reference to the Supreme Being : "Aum Tat Sat or Aham Brahmashmi" is nothing but spiritual identity. Hindus already offered to the world thousands of years ago what Julian Huxley called "the science of human possibilities."
If we want to clearly see the distinction between cultures we can look at the basic human act of relationship and communication, how greeting is done by people. Hindus’ "Namaste" is the expression of the reverence of the entire body, mind and the spirit of human divinity, whereas other cultures greet physically and intellectually. The distinction between two societies can be simply stated as the Hindu culture in the Indian sub-continent was pre-planned (like a city) and ‘samskriti’ was the basis, and Western civilization grew according to ‘prakriti, without any planning.
Now the obvious question comes to our mind, then why India and people of India are in such a miserable condition today? The history can answer the question. Any entity can be destroyed if the inner strength weakens and if external forces overpower the entity. Here is what Swami Vivekananda said about it: “The social laws of India have always been subject to great periodic changes. At their inception, these laws were embodiment of a gigantic plan, which was to unfold itself slowly through time. The great seers of ancient India saw so far ahead of their time that the world has to wait centuries yet to appreciate the full scope of this wonderful plan, that is the one and only cause of degeneration of India. The degeneration of India came not because the laws and customs of the ancients were bad, but because they were not allowed to be carried to their legitimate conclusions.
Indian Culture
Hindus welcomed people from abroad and were open to new ideas for their living. Hindus are the only country that gave shelter to the persecuted people from all over the world, including the Parsees, the Jews and the Tibetan Buddhists and Bangladeshis till today. Yet it is easier to say "take the best of both worlds" than actually doing it. Culture is a living organic ecosystem. One cannot just impose an alien idea or practice on a culture, it has to fit into the system as if it were as organic as a part of our own body. Hindus did not simply take things from the outside, but assimilated them and adapted them to their own life and culture which was already very rich and diverse.
During the last thousand years of foreign invasion and foreign rule, Hindus have lost a lot; most importantly dynamism. During this period the society had to work hard just to survive and allowed maximum ossification to protect it. As a result, constant reform, which is the hallmark of the Hindu society almost stopped until the last part of the 19th century. The time has come for Hindus to look through the lenses of 21st century needs to help remove unnecessary and evil practices not only in India but also throughout the world.
Today, some people may like to call the Indian culture as a composite one, or even a culture put together by invaders. This is misleading. The culture of Bharat rests firmly on spiritual and yogic principles today as it did in past. Even non-Hindus in India reflect these influences. Unfortunately a small class of people who controls the affairs of the nation, having faith in and guided by Western ideals tries to create a culture of different type, sometimes in the guise of what is "modern" or "progressive" (which is neither a complete replica of the West, nor completely away from Hindu culture). The art, literature, music, and other forms of entertainment such as films are influenced by these people. Many current forms of expressions and entertainment, which sometimes pass for art and culture in India are far from Indian culture.
Although the mud and the jungles are left behind by the flood of hostile battles of past, majority of India still remains the India of Ram, Krishna, Sita, Draupadi and Shiva Parvati. Even the Christians in India maintain Hindu cultural aspects. Churches are using AUM and Saffron, doing "pooja" to Jesus. So called communists are no less religious and continue with mantras and rituals. Therefore it seems like the current phase of confusion is temporary and slowly India is going back to her true Dharma.
The popular Indian movie culture is a show of malnourished people. Finding nothing better to appreciate, it engulfs anything it finds on the way. It mimics others but cannot digest, because its stomach is not built for certain types of food and the society suffers from cultural malnutrition. The land has become free from foreign rule, but the cultural alienation still exists among her elite, as the trend was set by the first Prime Minister himself. But fortunately the shapers of the destiny of the nation today are not just these elite, but also a large number of truly cultured people, those who have Samskaras and promote Samskriti, who are joining a new cultural awakening of the nation.
Our Role
All of Asia was flooded with India’s culture and philosophy, not by force but by the choice of the people. Buddha and Ram provide spiritual inspiration to many nations of Asia today, including China, Japan, and Indonesia. Since the advent of Swami Vivekananda in America, Hindu Dharma is slowly finding its place in the hearts of the Americans. Mary Louise Burke said: "There are already many in the West who are in the Vedanta philosophy. These ’unsung devotees’ find in Vivekananda’s and Ramakrishna’s teachings the ways of total sacrifice." Although Vivekananda’s teaching are not to be found in the mainstream of Western thought and culture, the Christian Church in the West, both Protestant and Catholic, are taking deep interest in the Eastern thoughts. Without quite knowing the source the Americans are influenced by Vivekananda in their "search for life within." That’s not all; many other spiritual leaders have made major contributions to the building of modern American minds.
What then we ought to do? What is our cultural debt to India? What do we owe to the society we live in? Hindus living in those lands which are predominantly non-Hindu will not only have to maintain their culture, but emphasis has to be given to allow to develop new forms to expressions their Hindu cultural values. This must be done with great caution. One new approach could be to Hinduize selected native practices/festivals and reform some Hindu practices. Practicing Hindu values and traditions at home and providing Hindu Samskaras to the children must be the first priority. Have we tried to learn to be a "Hindu Parent"? We must watch out what we are practicing and propagating in the name of our culture in our individual life, our home, our parties, our community and in our organizations.
Conclusion
Some thinkers are saying that the next world war is going to be a war of cultures. People like Samuel Huntington thinks that the clash of civilizations is inevitable. If the cultures are as Bertrand Russel said are "billiard balls" then they are going to definitely collide with each other. In this crucial matter, Hindus are an exception, a flexible, absorbent and open people who have accordingly suffered a lot. Hindus hold the key to the peace and progress of the world of tomorrow. We as Hindus will not only contribute towards the minimization of conflicts but also give the light to the world towards the recognition of one Global Human Culture where unity in diversity will be the key-note and all cultures will be regarded as facets of a Global and Universal Culture.
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