India the Great: A Billion Souls & More
When an Indian politician spoke recently on spirituality he embarrassed not only himself but a lot of people in this country. He expressed his view on the soul of India which he claims is the Gita and said even though he respects the Koran and the Bible, they are not central to India's soul. What is central to India's soul? The story of the blind men and the elephant might be the finest example of a parable to explain the soul of India. No Indian religion claims to have the whole Truth and nothing but the whole Truth, and so allows for a multitude of paths. We all know the story of the blind men and the elephant and how every one of them was under the impression they had the whole Truth, and we are taught they were all wrong! This story highlights the need for being tolerant and our acceptance of different paths and religions is what makes India unique. Adi Shankara travelled all over India and debated the meaning of truth with other great philosophers, and we know how our greatest philosopher was defeated by a low caste unlettered Sudra. He travelled all over India and debated in the grand tradition of our philosophers through the millennia, and though defeated by an untouchable, we have the greatest respect for him. Nowadays, in a modern democratic political State our constitution guards the religious rights of all people. In short, the constitution respects the peoples' right to follow any path and respects all paths. Is it good to introduce the teaching of only the Gita in schools the way an Islamic State does with the Koran? That is unHindu and unIndian and is not a part of our religious spiritual tradition. While the religions of the Koran and the Bible undoubtably have their historical roots outside India there are other old religions which have their roots in Indian soil and which revolted against Vedic and Hindu Thought through the ages, such as, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and others. Aren't they as Indian as the Vedas? Don't their followers also have rights? Have we not accepted them over the millennia? Are they not a part of our tradition? If we need to study the Gita in school what about the holy texts of the other religions which broke away from Hindu beliefs and values? Let's study all of them. Christianity in India is much older than the West. Our oral tradition informs us the religion goes back to St Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ and today there are more than six million Christians in Kerala, a lot more than in Goa after four centuries of Portuguese colonialism. Are we Indians today spiritually bankrupt to be afraid of other ways of thinking which are different from those of the Gita? Of course not. Politicians, as a social group are probably the most irreligious people in the world. They should not go where angels fear to tread. Otherwise, they invariably provide us with unintentional comedy, and never has the phrase silence is golden been more meaningful. Hindu yogis have always maintained there are different paths to God or no-God, Truth, self-realization or whatever you choose to call Ultimate Reality. They were interested in the individual's inner search of the ultimate spiritual experience. Read the Upanishads. There is a difference between our Indian spiritual tradition and the politics of religion. We need not get angry with him as to expect a politician to understand spiritual matters is unreasonable.