Over the last few weeks I have had some
conversations that inspire this post, the topic of which is relativism as a
worldview and perspective, specifically applying to faith, spirituality and
religion, and its relation to a rootlessness which I see so widely prevalent in
the world today. This rootlessness has its source in spiritual rootlessness and
cuts across generations, including not
only my own (comprising of people at middle age in the age range of 30-60
years), but to a lesser extent in the previous generation of our parents, and it
will unfortunately be more prevalent in the coming generation of our children.
The purpose of this essay is to explain that
rootlessness and relativism are both simultaneously the cause and effect of the
other, and to point out the remedy to these twin problems which when properly
applied leads to conviction and connectedness. These insights come from my direct
experience which is validated by Hindu scriptural texts. This essay will be of
special interest to readers who are of the Hindu faith, or who are interested
in the same, although it is broadly applicable to all faiths. In other words,
it speaks to a universal condition.
The positive outcome that I envision from
writing this essay is that the reader will be able to take steps available in
his or her own spiritual and religious tradition and discover the necessary
wisdom to lead a way of life that is firmly rooted in faith and conviction born
of direct experience, which will then allow them to be a lighthouse and anchor
to everyone around them. Then rootlessness is replaced by connectedness at the
most fundamental level. Such people can inspire their children to be rooted in
their family spiritual tradition and yet follow a tolerant and all-embracing
way of life that is full of love, understanding, compassion and humility; these
being the hallmarks of true spiritual wisdom.
Recent conversations with family and friends
both in India and the US alerted me to this interesting finding that many
Indians of my generation, and even in my extended family, suffer from a
relativist outlook which reflects a lack of conviction or faith. Now what do I
mean by relativism. Relativism is a lack of conviction in the spiritual and
religious tradition that one was raised in, stemming from a lack of true
understanding of one’s spiritual and religious heritage. Relativism is actually
the milder symptom of the disease that stems from a lack of true understanding
of one’s spiritual and religious heritage. Its far more dangerous cousin is
fundamentalism, which leads to a blind belief in the superiority of one's
religion that is unaccommodating of any other viewpoint. Disavowing fundamentalism
from the outset, we are still confronted by this worldwide phenomenon that the
vast majority of ‘educated’ persons in my generation are fundamentally
ambivalent about their faith and religion, and are unconvinced, and therefore
ignorant, of how to practice and follow their faith. In this way, relativism
leads to rootlessness and a disconnection from the spiritual and religious
traditions of one’s birth family. This spiritual relativism leads in turn to
moral and ethical relativism, and an inability to take a stand on modern-day
social issues, or to articulate it effectively to others, most importantly to
one’s own children. Intuitively many parents know what is right and they know that
sometimes what their children are doing is wrong. However, they do not seem to
have the moral authority to articulate it, nor do they seem to know the
procedures for standing by those moral positions in such a way as to inspire
their children to follow the desired path. In the event that their children fall
from dharma, or right action, the parents lack the mental strength born of
moral conviction to disavow their behavior and association until such time as
better wisdom prevails. Decline of family tradition leads to decline of
communities and society as a whole, so this is a matter of vital importance.
I am most aware of this relativism and
ambivalence towards one’s faith in the Hindu context but there are indications
that other faiths suffer from this as well. It is almost as if a modern
education with a scientific and rational basis—what I will refer to as a modern
liberal Western education—has effectively severed our generation’s genuine
connection with spirituality and religion. (This is not a necessary outcome
because it is possible to reconcile a scientific and rational worldview with
Vedic thought, the two not being contrary to, or contradictory of, each other.)
Essentially we have a whole generation of Hindus who cannot articulate what it
means to be a Hindu, who have poor knowledge of the Hindu faith and a
less-than-passing acquaintance with its principles, who do not know their
spiritual and religious traditions and practices or their scriptural basis, and
are therefore unable to pass any of this on to their children. They hold on to
some religious observances or practices from memories of their childhood and
these they improvise as best as they are able in their current lives in
different countries far from their land of birth. Prior to having children they
may actually have even been proud of their ignorance of their faith and neglect
of its practices, but now that they feel a need to transmit something to their
children but they do not know what to transmit and how to do it. As a
consequence, they feel rootless and so do their children.
This rootlessness in turn feeds on relativism,
which roughly translates to “I don’t really know. All paths are really fine.
Everything is after all subjective. All perspectives are after all relative.
Any path is fine since all paths should eventually lead to the same truth.
Surely any person is free to follow any spiritual or religious path of their
choosing and so should my children.” Thus deluding themselves with seemingly
broad-minded and liberal words, there are many who take an easy way out,
forgetting that a truly emancipated and liberal attitude requires years of personal
discipline and hard sAdhanA. Also
there seems to be a deep fear that being rooted in one’s faith and religious
tradition will somehow make one appear to be intolerant or narrow-minded. The
observant Hindu today is easily misidentified as traditional and conservative
and then judged to be ignorant and narrow-minded.
This relativist attitude is furthered by the
perhaps well-intentioned words of several popular swAmis and so-called gurus
whose easy-to-swallow placebo mantra is “Be as you are.” This is surely a
deceptively attractive so-called “spiritual” way of living that the ego is so
easily drawn to. Seduced by this kind of thinking, the ego argues “All I have
to do is just continue being the way I am. My true nature is perfect after all.”
Such flowery words are easy to dispense and accept when the hard toil of sAdhanA has not even begun, but they do
not lead anywhere close to the Truth. Such statements are certainly true in the
highest sense but that state is only reached after tremendous spiritual effort.
There is much New Age nonsense about living effortlessly. Then surely it would
follow that the likes of BhagavAn SrI RamaNa were ignorant fools and
sinners to perform such great tapasyA to attain the Truth! No, rather the
contrary is true. The Vedas, the scriptural texts of the shad-darshaNas and the PurANas are full of stories of great
spiritual effort and toil, and only a fool in Kali Yuga will believe that true
spiritual gain is obtained effortlessly. Even a dunce in the material world
recognizes that gain in the material world is preceded by effort, what to say of
gains in the spiritual world!
To those who have read this far and
recognize the malaise of rootlessness and relativism, I will now offer my
insight into its remedy. This spiritual relativism stems from a lack of sAdhanA and weakness of the Guru
principle. It leads to rootlessness, most starkly manifesting as a spiritual
and religious rootlessness, which in turn leads to a moral and ethical
ambivalence. In its most extreme manifestation it leads to people adopting
religious/spiritual traditions and beliefs that are different from the ones of
the birth family in which they were raised. The specific examples that prompted
my observation relate to Indians raised in a Hindu brAhmin family in the Vedic
tradition, but this malaise is worldwide and cuts across all religions. It
leads to a rootlessness in people that is sometimes even coupled with a genuine
spiritual seeking which is unfortunately uninformed of the great treasures
lying right in their own tradition, and leads them to seek this truth in other
traditions. In its mild form it leads to flirtation with other spiritual and
religious practices, and in extreme cases to temporary or permanent religious
conversion. I find that in some rare cases of conversion to the Hindu faith (all cases of which I know are voluntary) this
yields successful results with true spiritual growth, but not always. I have
not yet seen a case of conversion from
the Hindu faith to another which has resulted in genuine spiritual growth that
was not possible had the aspirant stayed within the Hindu faith.
All my life, and more so recently, I have
been convinced that although the Eternal Truth is the same and has been most
certainly seen by many great Seers in traditions other than the Vedic and Hindu
tradition, there is something superior to the Vedic insight. I know I am
treading dangerous ground here and many of my so-called friends may disown me
for saying this, but I must aver this to be true because it stems from my
direct experience following spiritual practice. In the following I will try to
explain why I am convinced of the superiority of the Vedic tradition and the
insight it affords. Those who are patient and willing to read further may see
the truth in my argument, which stems from direct experience and is not a mere
parroting or regurgitation of book knowledge.
The Truth being unvarying and accessed in samAdhi is necessarily the same, whether
it is apprehended by one of the three great Gurus, namely, SrI Adi
ShankarAcArya, BhagavAn SrI RamaNa MahaRShi, or SrI RAmakRShNa, or by Jesus or
Rumi or the Buddha, or by oneself. Even so, the direct experience of this Truth
is accessible to only very few. The Bhagavad GItA estimates that it is about
one in a million human beings who actually has this experience, and that was in
the dvApara Yuga. In the seventh adhyAya verse 3 of the Bhagavad GItA, SrI
KRShNa tells Arjuna manushyANAm sahasreshu kascid yatati siddhaye, yatatam
api siddhAnAm kascin mAm vetti tattvatah—“Out of many thousands among men, one may
endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one
knows Me in truth.” One can safely assume that this
fraction is certainly no more than one in a million, and very likely less, in
Kali Yuga. Given this situation, the vast majority of people in the world need
a specific set of guidelines and rules to live by. In the Vedic tradition this
is called dharma. Dharma has a three-fold aspect: svadharma, Vedic dharma and
vyavahArika dharma. Svadharma is the duty of each conscious being to strive to
know one’s true nature through meditation and self-study. Svadharma and Vedic
dharma pertain the Eternal and from those are derived vyavahArika dharma which is changeable, being subject as it is to
time, place and circumstance (desh, kAla and
paristhiti). The closer the three are
in alignment (and the first two are always in alignment), the more aligned is
the individual and society with the Eternal and Universal dharma or Rta.
The principal difficulty with spiritual and
religious traditions other than the Vedic tradition—the nAstika schools—is that
their Seers did not produce a systematic
and graded manual for spiritual evolution that is widely applicable to all
human beings. This is the single greatest gift of the Vedic tradition. The
reason for this is that the Rshis, being great psychologists and sociologists,
realized that dharma has both Eternal and adaptable aspects, and the
explanation of the adaptable or vyavahArika
aspect requires the interpretation by a contemporary Seer. Only a genuine
Seer can comment on how the ethical and moral questions of the day must be
answered in such a way that is harmonious and relevant in today’s world and yet
in accord with the Eternal dharma. So a living faith tradition or spiritual
path requires both a system that allows this re-interpretation of the Eternal
dharma, and contemporary genuine Seers qualified to undertake this
re-interpretation. Although we have so-called religious heads for the various
major religions of the world, in Kali Yuga their actions do not indicate that
they are genuine Seers of the Truth and hence they lose the qualification and
authority to interpret dharma. Various other so-called visionaries have also
cropped up who try to re-interpret dharma and they may serve some purpose no
doubt, but still the vast populace remains rootless.
The reason why Islam is now perceived as so
horrendous when its original Seer the Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon Him, did
indeed have a genuine vision of the Truth, is that it does not have an built-in
system like the Vedic tradition which allows for an adaptable set of laws (vyavahArika dharma), that can be
reconciled with an eternally applicable set of laws (like the Vedic dharma). Blindly
following the laws specific to a particular time, place and circumstance in
another situation leads to disharmony and violence. Nor in recent times have we
seen a genuine contemporary Seer in that tradition who was capable of interpreting
the original insights. The same can be said for Judaism and Christianity. This
is not to say that the current Pope is not wise in articulating the eternal
values and truths—the Ten Commandments are indeed eternal and hold for all
time—but it is plain that the Vatican has had such a difficult time in coming
up with a compassionate and sensible interpretation of the moral and ethical
issues of our day: including abortion, contraception, homosexuality, divorce,
etc. Even if their stand on these issues is correct, they have difficulty
articulating it in a way that is convincing. On this score the present-day
Hindu religious establishment has not fared any better, but probably worse, for
it does not even seem to acknowledge modern social issues, let alone respond to
them. So each Hindu has to take personal responsibility. Interestingly, the
Rev. Martin Luther King’s message was rooted in the belief that man-made laws
cannot contradict eternal laws or social justice and peace would not reign on
earth.
So returning to the main point of this
essay, the cure to rootlessness and relativism is for each Hindu to adopt a
personal, daily spiritual practice. First of all I feel it is important to be
aware that if you are born a Hindu you are greatly blessed and the path to
Bliss is easily accessible to you, but you must put your faith into practice. One
does not need to reinvent any new practice for this. Our scriptures clearly
state that the first nityakarma, or
daily activity, that is required of the three upper castes (which I will
interpret shortly) is the sandhyAvandanam.
In other words, if you consider yourself a Hindu and you are not solely wedded
to the pursuit of sense pleasure (which is the definition of a shUdra, and this is not decided by birth
but by one’s behavior), then the simple daily practice of sandhyAvandanam will lead to all the other practices and spiritual
knowledge and insight that is necessary for conviction, born of direct
experience, in the Vedic way of life. This conviction sets an end to
rootlessness and yields the correct insight into all three aspects of dharma. For
the Christian the appropriate practice would be the Lord’s daily prayer and for
the Muslim, the namaz.
The other practices for a Hindu are the
discharge of the three-fold debt to the pitRs,
devas and Rshis. Honor your ancestors on the tithi and amAvAsya days
with pitR tarpaNam and remember the
spiritual heritage they have blessed you with. Do not be careless with the kAryas for the devas as instructed in the taittirIya
Upanishad (devapitRkAryAbhyAm na
pramaditavyam). Study the Vedas and Upanishads to discharge the debt to the
RShis. The Vedic and Hindu spiritual path is decidedly an experiential approach,
not armchair philosophy. One must engage in it and practice it with full
devotion uninterruptedly for an extended period of time to truly understand its
power and benefit. Cf. Yoga Sutra- sa tu
dIrgha kale nairAntarya satkAra asevitAh dRDha bhUmih.
Ultimately, realization of the ultimate
Truth (sarvam khalvidam brahmA) will
necessarily have to reveal the cause of your manifestation as a Hindu and guide
you in how to conduct the remainder of that bodily manifestation. No religion
or spiritual tradition other than Hinduism can lead you to that revelation. Only
a mother (in this case the Vedas) knows the true nature and identity of the
child, and only she can reveal that to the child. And again, the very purpose
of Vedic inquiry is to understand one’s identity with the body, with the mind,
name and form and to transcend these to understand who the real I is. On this
quest it is surely foolish to now adopt new identities as a convert to another
religion! One must first understand one’s identity taken on in this birth in
order to transcend it; not go around acquiring new ones! There is nothing about
the Truth which is not in the Vedas that is there in any other religion or
spiritual practice. Truly I say, the Vedic insight is the mother of all
spiritual insights.
Nevertheless, the purpose of this essay is
not to dissuade those who want to convert from Hinduism—that is merely their
past karma and none, not even Shiva, can cure them of that aparAdham (which in the sense of tripurA rahasya is want of faith in the scripture and teachings of
vedAnta and the Guru)—but the intent here is merely to strengthen the faith of
those who may be seeking that. Indeed relativism and restlessness are nothing
but aparAdham: the first impediment
to Self-Realization as described in the tripurA
rahasya. At the same time the wise Hindu does not seek to convert anyone to
his faith either. The proper spiritual evolution of each jIva is to continue in their faith tradition for that birth. This
has always been the Hindu way: to respect and allow all faiths their practices,
for SrI KRShNa says in the Bhagavad GitA ninth adhyAya, ye’py
anya-devata-bhakta yajante sraddhayanvitah, te’pi mam eva kaunteya yajanty
avidhi-purvakam “Even those who pray to other gods with faith, in truth
they worship Me alone although in ways not prescribed.” This catholicism of
outlook I have not seen in any other faith or religion. Converting to
Christianity or Islam will leave you having to confront your identity at birth
as a heathen or infidel! There are very rare instances where a jIva born in another religion or faith
converts to Hinduism due to rapid spiritual progress in this janma itself. I have had the benefit of
knowing two individuals in whom I could say this was mostly successful and
inspiring, but even in these cases there are some residual challenges and
obstacles of various sorts that persist and lead to occasional misunderstanding
of the true import of the Vedas. In the vast majority of conversions to the
Hindu faith there is great danger of misinterpretation of the Vedas by the
newly converted and great confusion and infamy can be brought to the Vedas and
the Hindu faith itself due to these misinterpretations. For this reason our AcAryas never welcomed conversion into
the faith. The esoteric practices in the Vedas require great shraddhA and devotion and are not
accessible to one and all. The goal here is not to exclude the sincere seeker
but it was born of wisdom that gave insight into the past karmas and samskAras of
these initially enthusiastic converts.
May all gain conviction in the faith and
spiritual traditions of their birth family, and through connectedness to that
identity, eventually transcend it and feel eternally connected to their true
nature.
Sarve janAh sukhino bhavantu.
Om shAntih shAntih shAntih.
