Vedas in the Light of a New Renaissance

Abstract

Given mankind’s pioneering leaps in science and technology, it is paradoxical that today, that very man is at the mercy of nature and nurture – both manifest in the rising number of natural and man-made disasters.

In the past, the best in man led him to try to transcend to greater heights, resulting in an outpouring of creativity in thought and expression known as the Renaissance age. Yet, this richness of expression remains superficial if we are still bound by suffering brought on by nature’s and our own doing. In this light, all our best attempts remain a sort of intermittent creativity alternated with passive resignation to and desperate attempts to rise above our difficulties. However, so far, this has had the devastating effect of entrenching us deeper in a cycle of self-perpetuating suffering and destruction.

If indeed we are one with Brahman, then there must not only be a way that we can overcome our reactive nature, but most importantly, evolve to a new state of being; a harmonious living through an intuitive understanding of Satchittananda.

This is not just a dream for a bright future, but the reality of a living past which brought on the revelation of the Vedas.

This is a humble experiment to swim in the vast ocean of knowledge and draws on the deep inspiration of spiritual icons such as Shri Aurobhindo and Swami Vivekananda as well as contemporary psychosocial thought with the hope that it may lead to possible avenues of contemplation for new perspectives in life, with the Vedas as a means to continuing a new global Renaissance which was begun by Swami Vivekananda.

Background

India earned her name as Dharmabhumi by the concerted Tapas of her spiritual children – the great Rishis and Sannyasins throughout the ages from Maharishi Vyasa to Swami Vivekananda and on to the modern day. These ennobled beings, made it their life’s work to share the wisdom of the Vedas with the entire world.

In his clarion call to the West, Swami Vivekananda appealed to them as Amrtasya Putraha, Children of Immortal Bliss, to claim their rightful heritage. This event marks the dawn of the New Renaissance when the Upanishads were propagated and came to be accepted by the West.

Today, the progress we see in the field of modern science and technology offers us the illusion of having mastered the universe - from the simplest kitchen appliance to the most advanced craft which enables man to travel to outer space. Yet, we are still caught in the inevitable Vasana of violence and despair within ourselves and our world. This is evident in the rising incidence of psychosomatic diseases, civil unrest, warring nations, and natural disasters.

Insane Society

In his biography Chains of Illusion, renowned social psychologist Erich Fromm traces man’s evolution over a mere 500 years, during which the idea of the individual, with individual thoughts, feelings, moral conscience, freedom, and responsibility, came into being.

Beginning from the early ages, man’s life was governed by purely biological or animalistic needs (Freud). Man then evolved in the traditional society of the Middle Ages, during which a form of socioeconomic determinism (ala Marx) existed. In this context, man followed the path of his forefathers. While this meant that man had little freedom to choose his life’s direction, it also meant that life had structure and purpose. Following this predetermined path as his forefathers did, however, did not give rise to soul-searching and man remained separate from his universe, at the mercy of unseen powers governing the universe, and man’s perception of an unseen and whimsical God.

With the coming of the Renaissance age, man began to see humanity as the center of the universe, instead of God. Traditional establishments (such as the church) were no longer looked to in determining one’s life’s path. Inspired by his own potential, the Renaissance man turned his attention to the development of art, literature, culture, and all it entailed including politics and the sciences. However, despite the flowering of art and literature, a sustainable system of life still remained a pipedream. This led to the Reformation, which introduced the idea of man being individually responsible for his own soul's salvation. This in turn led to democratic revolutions such as the American and the French revolutions where man took responsibility of his governance. However, this was far from the ideal society and soon, the industrial revolution followed. Labour was sold in exchange for money and farming and artisanship took a backseat. All of a sudden, man became an employee and consumer. Still discontented, man continued to search for a more satisfying way of life. This led to the Socialist revolutions, such as the Russian and Chinese, which introduced the idea of participatory economics. Here, man was no longer responsible for his own well-being, but for the well-being of his fellow workers as well.

But we have failed our responsibilities to our present and we pose a threat to our future. Today, approximately 10 - 20% of children and adolescents suffer from mental health problems worldwide[1]. The United Nations Environment Programme reveals that rapid globalization and urbanization, pervasive poverty, unsustainable consumption patterns and population growth are contributing to “…unprecedented global trends in environmental degradation...”. “Global climate change, the depletion of the ozone layer, desertification, deforestation, the loss of the planet’s biological diversity and the trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and chemicals are all environmental problems that touch every nation and adversely affect the lives and health of their populations[2]”.

The horror of this prediction is seen in the immense fragile interconnectedness of the entire universe, which Albert Einstein put very succinctly when he said, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination… no more men!”[3]

But we continue on our self-destructive trajectory with scant regard for our own future or that of the universe we are a part of. Our systems and philosophies have evolved, but on the whole, we remain internally isolated, psychologically alienated and bewildered by nature. In this light, all our best achievements to date remain superficial.

The Age of Not Knowing

Modern psychologists have tried to offer us hope. According to Fromm, Freedom is the central human characteristic and through this freedom, we may transcend nature (Marx) and nurture (Freud).

Like many others, Fromm believed that man has human needs that go far beyond the basic animal needs[4].  Fromm suggests that these human needs can be summed up as man’s need to find an answer to his existence. He saw the major purpose of culture being to help man in his quest, which would ultimately free him from his current suffering, which Fromm called insanity. As such, Fromm elaborates the needs as follows:

1. Relatedness – We have the need to feel related to the world around us. Our perception of our awareness of our separateness from others and our need to transcend this separateness has led us to try and meet this need in unhealthy ways in the absence of a working philosophy. We see this in the alarming accounts of people submitting themselves to others or groups, or to their conception of a God, by dominating others or denying the need itself (the exploitation of which has led to socially detrimental effects such as terrorism, violence and mental illnesses such as narcissism).
2. Creativity – We all have an innate desire to transcend being passive creatures at the mercy of nature. This need to direct the course of our own lives has led us to the myriad breakthroughs in all fields from medical science to communication to food production, transport, etc. However, when this need is frustrated, it could lead to exploitation for quick gain at the expense of all creation both living and non-living as is seen in the rate at which earth’s natural resources are being plundered, often giving rise to territorial war.
3. Rootedness – We all need to feel at home in the universe or discover our oneness with humanity. It is this unmet need which manifests itself as schizophrenia or neuroticism or even worse – fanaticism – as evinced in religious enmity to the exclusion of all other faiths.
4. A sense of identity – All the above needs translate to our greater need for a sense of identity or individuality. We see people do anything for the sake of status, or conform to the extent that he is willing to even give up his life in order to remain a part of a group in their attempt to fulfill this need.
5. A frame of orientation – This all boils down to out need to understand the world and our place in it. This sometimes leads us to acts of desperate gullibility and allows us to be exploitation by interested powers such as or to swing to the other extreme or scientific rationalization.

But while we are able to find some of the pieces to the puzzle of life through culture, religion, myths, philosophies, and modern sciences, we are still in need of a frame of orientation that satisfies our need for a warm, human understanding.

Vedas – A return to the Source

The Vedas are believed to be the well-spring at which all world religions draw their inspirations. The Upanishads which contain the essence of the Vedas, present various meditations through which we can seek the answers to our questions. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which is the longest Upanishad is a cosmic meditation which tells us that all the fourteen worlds are the Self or Imani bhutani, idam sarvam yad ayam atma..

In Vedic speak, if the path to man’s fulfillment of his human needs is his Dharma, then as the Pramana or tools of Dharma, the Vedas not only reveal to man this understanding but show the way through contemplation with an inquiring spirit (known today as a scientific spirit).  And the understanding is revealed deep within man himself.

The Bhagavad Gita which believed to be the oldest comprehensive text on yoga tells us enlightened men are those who can see the all pervading Atman in a cow, an elephant, a dog or even an eater of dog meat. [5]

Vidya-vinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini /

Shuni c’aiva shvapake ca panditha sama-darshinaha //

It is our Avidya of the essential Oneness of all creation that breeds in us Ahamkara. This ego leads us to feel separateness from all other beings and the universe which is the underlying cause of illness and unrest.

The Vedas also tell us that Katham bhava or an inquiring mind which prompts us to questions the How and Why of the world leads to Samsrushti which can be interpreted as creativity in finding new solutions to situations and phenomena around us.

This, coupled with the knowledge of Bhramande yadasti pindande tat sarvam, if we are rooted in humanity, we would understand the interconnectedness of the entire universe. And this knowledge would deter exploitation of others as we would perceive that all that we do we ultimately do to ourselves. Armed with this wealth of knowledge, man would have a healthy sense of identity and see his place as the sustained in the world which is the sustainer.

Therefore in a nutshell, the The Abheda Sruthis of the Vedas (i.e.  Tat Tvam Asi,  Sarvam kalu idam brahmasmi and Aham Brahmasmi) tell us all that we really need to know – that the identity of the universe and Brahman or the all pervading Self is one. If this answers all the questions which give rise to the human needs described by Fromm, then the Vedas can be said to fill our apparent deficiencies and fix our misconceptions. In fact they can be seen as the guiding light to show is the way to return to a better way of life.

The New Renaissance

And this way of life is not an Utopian ideal but a living reality that has already taken root in some cultures.

In her book The Soul of Money, Lynne Twist eloquently defines human Dharma as “our most soulful commitments and core values, which is the well-being of the people we love, ourselves, and the world we live in”.[6] Speaking from her learning of 20 years with the World Hunger Project as a training consultant for fund-raisers and the development of fund-raising operations in thirty-seven countries[7], Twist says that there is no rational explanation for why “…one-fifth of humanity is hungry and malnourished…” “…when we have more food that we need to feed everyone several times over”.  However, she found that “…systematically challenging false assumptions about chronic hunger and food aid, exposed the myth of scarcity and opened new avenues of inquiry and possibility, eventually succeeding in making a significant contribution to the eradication of hunger by empowering people  to author their own recovery”. This is a powerful truth in a world where conflict and disaster relief has become an industry.

Twist’s account of generations of Achuar people living deep in the Amazon rain forest, “…raising  families, building homes and maintaining communities for thousands of years, all without money” but with a high level of “…attunement to the forces of nature and their relationships with one another and the forest[8]” is deeply inspiring. “Reciprocity” she says, was the “social currency”. “For the Achuar, wealth meant being present to the fullness and richness of the moment and sharing that with one another.”

And this is not an isolated case. Twist also speaks of this spirit of “sufficiency” in people who live in money cultures like the people of the remote Senegalese village in the West Africa’s Sahel Desert, who discovered an underground lake beneath their harsh and arid land. [9]

What both these communities shared was a deep and abiding closeness to the natural world that they inhabited and were able to retain this intuitive understanding that was characteristic of the Vedic people. And therefore to be able to return to this way of living, we might consider Sri Aurobhindo’s description of the Vedas as the heritage left to mankind, on the brink of the age of reasoning, by our forefathers from the age of intuition[10].

There is a need to for us to regain our lost intuition. Unfortunately, possibly owing to the threats that the Vedic culture suffered in British colonial India, the study of the Vedas today tends to be more ritualistic than spiritual.

However by the development of Shradda, we can cultivate a graceful acceptance of the limitations of rational thinking and modern science and open ourselves to the divine message that the Vedas reveal. In this manner, we can re-evaluate our current systems and assimilate Vedic knowledge as our Dharma.

Led by Swami Vivekananda, great souls such as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore in the East and T. S. Elliot and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the West drew on the teachings of the Vedas to effect change in their spheres of life, leading the way in a new renaissance. Let us too draw from the Vedas to guide us to be the change that we want to see in the world.

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[1] Child and adolescent mental health worldwide: evidence for action: by Christian Kieling et al (The Lancet, Volume 378, Issue 9801, Pages 1515 - 1525, 22 October 2011)

[2] United Nations Environment Programme: http://www.unep.org/ceh/chapter04.pdf

[3] Global Climate Change 2010 (http://cosmos.ucdavis.edu/archives/2010/cluster7/Zou_Jalynn_Honey_Bees.pdf)

[4] The Sane Society (1955)

[5] Gita 5:18

[6] The Soul of Money, Lynne Twist (pg 11), USA, 2006

[7] The Soul of Money, Lynne Twist (pg 61-65)

[8] Soul of Money, Lynne Twist (pg 3-6)

[9] Soul of Money, Lynne Twist (pg 68-74)

[10] Secret of the Vedas, Sri Aurobhindo