Scientific Approach to Hinduism

Hinduism does not mean merely the religious system with its doctrines, creeds and rituals. It also means the basic values which have been shaping the social, moral, and spiritual way of life of the people of this country from age to age.

Hinduism is the name which has now been given to our system, but its real name has always been Sanatana Dharma or the immutable, Eternal Law, ever-true, ever-life-giving. It does not date from a particular point of time or begin from a particular founder. Being eternal, it is also universal. It knows no territorial jurisdiction. All beings born and to be born belong to it. Throughout the ages our prayers are for universal well-being.

Hinduism has undying vigour. Whenever it has been challenged, it has developed creative strength and come out triumphant.

Hinduism had developed as a way of life with a distinctive social, moral and spiritual ground, long before the rise of Greece and Rome. The cultures of these countries are now museum-pieces, while, in spite of historical vicissitudes, Hinduism flourishes today as vigorously as ever.

It is amazing that Hinduism should have survived thousands of years, in spite of great social and political upheavals, and terrific onslaughts on it, from age to age. That Hinduism faced these challenges and readjusted itself is a standing testimony to its intrinsic power and undying vitality.

Hinduism accepted the challenge presented to it in the 8th century when disintegration had overtaken Indian culture. The cult of karma-kanda, ritualism, which laid emphasis on sacrifices, to the neglect of high religious aspirations, the Shakti cults, some of which favoured bloody magic rites, and decadent Mahayana Buddhism, and Vamachar with their magic cults, threatened India with disintegration.

Then, arose Sankara Bhagavatpada who gave Hinduism fresh vitality and reshaped life. His influence, after 1200 years, still permeates our life.

I have always stood in awesome admiration at the life and achievements of Sankara Bhagavatpada. In a short span of 32 years, he performed the miracle of driving out decadent Buddhism from the land, and purifying and co-ordinating the different cults in vogue, of re-establishing Hinduism on a firm basis, of laying the foundation of a countrywide organisation of Sanyas orders with Peethas at their head.

A poet, a teacher, a reformer, a philosopher with unique intellectual profundity, a yogi of miraculous powers, he stands unrivalled among men–a unique combination, and union, in the same person, of two qualities generally found separated, the union of the abstract and the concrete.

To him we owe the vitality which unified different religious schools and established the supremacy of Vairagya and Bhakti.

A similar challenge was hurled at Hinduism in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

Under the Muslim kings, Hindus were, more often than not, considered as belonging to an inferior race. Their shrines were desecrated; their schools of learning were destroyed: for instance, the great shrines of Vishveshwar at Kashi, and Somnath at Prabhas, with its great centre of Paashupat cult. The latter was destroyed several times between A. D. 1024 and 1707 when Aurangazeb finally ordered that “the shrine should be destroyed beyond repair.” And yet in spite of this persecution, Hinduism survived with amazing vigour. During this period of 700 years, every time the shrine of Somnath was destroyed, it was restored, the ‘Shrine Eternal’ to its pristine glory, Rajendra Babu installing the deity, on the last occasion, recently.

In spite of the terrible destruction of Vrindavan by Ibrahim Lodi in the 15th century, Krishna Bhakti rose triumphantly. The Bhakti renaissance swept over the whole country and restored faith from Nadea, the birth-place of Chaitanya in the East, to Dwaraka in the West; Srirangam, Madurai, Kanchi, Tirupati, Guruvayur, Trivandrum continued as active centres of faith.

Hinduism was faced with a similar challenge when the British conquered the country. On the one hand, they encouraged the proselytisation of Hindus to Christianity, and on the other, through Western education, they tried to undermine the foundations of our faith in ancient tradition.

We accepted the challenge. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Dayananda Saraswati, Vivekananda, Tilak, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi and Mahatma Gandhi led the movement for Hindu renaissance. The Sankaracharyas of the different mutts, the sadhus and the religious movements like Arya Samaj all over the country put forward fresh energy to impart creative strength to the new religious impulse.

The New Challenge: Now has come the challenge of modern science and technology. It has given birth to the new city life where money and success are the supreme ends of life, where there are no fixed social standards, where the schools and colleges promote an atmosphere solely fed on material values and unaffected by social, ethical, religious and spiritual ideals. The cinema is their temple and church; hedonism, their most popular cult.

Educated men who borrow second-hand ideas of the West have come to believe that there is an inherent contradiction between religion and science. This modern belief is a Western myth. Hinduism has always given science a place in the religious system. We have always believed that religious dogmas do not survive if they are based on exploded myths, while science and materialism can never give a satisfying answer to men’s religious aspirations.

Many educated men, carried away by the glamour of the West, consider religion as a source of evil or, at any rate, as irrelevant to a rich, full and happy life. I ask them to ponder over the problem. What will happen if religion is taken away out of our life, if the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are forgotten? What will have been left, if Sri Krishna and the Bhagawad Gita are taken out of it; if the rituals and prayers which give stability to our life are given up, or if the millions of temples around which our faith has been woven for centuries are destroyed?

If that event, which is looked forward to by those who quarrel with religion, comes to pass, all the evils will remain: narrow-mindedness, selfishness, greed, lust, hatred, corruption, wickedness, wars–in fact, everything that they think religion is responsible for, and more.

All that we would have lost is the mitigating, uplifting and vital ennobling influence of religion from our midst. And we would have closed the direct avenue for the individual and society to rise to a nobler level.

The means of enjoying life have increased by far, but the irony of it is that at the same time happiness has not increased. The only logical conclusion possible is that an additional factor of great importance is necessary to bring happiness–that additional factor is active religion.

No great life of nobility and selflessness can be lived without an active sense of religion, for it has a purifying influence both the individual and the society.

We must accept this challenge, for it is the most serious chaallenge which has ever come to us. Religion should be vitalised; exercises in faith must be satisfying to the modern mind; religious practices must be uplifting; religious symbols, inspiring. The temple must be clean set in a sanctified atmosphere; the music accompanying the prayers must be soulful; the officiating priests must be men of learning and faith.

We should never forget that Sanskrit is the source of our inspiration–religious, moral and cultural. Unfortunately, the exigencies of modern life have driven the Government of India to evolve a three-language formula from which Sanskrit has been excluded. But by whichever way we can, we must promote the study of Sanskrit, for it is the parent language of India.

Nothing breaks my heart more than the sight of Sanskrit being deprived of the patronage of kings, governments and rich people who have faith in religion. But this is an age of the people. People must step in to support this life-breath of our culture.

It is one of the tragedies of the age that religious education is not imparted in our educational institutions as vigorously as it should be. We are rearing up a race of civilized barbarians, for whom religious aspiration is something unknown and God has no meaning. We have to take up the challenge, co-ordinate our activites and see that the rising generations are not deprived of the inspiration of religious influences.

Activities vitalising Hinduism require to be co-ordinated around our ancient temples and cultural institutions. Those of us dedicated to this service should search our hearts, scan the new horizon and face the problem of human destiny in terms of spiritual values. We must have the courage to discard self-denying other worldliness which somehow became a badge of god-mindedness in the past. Like Arjuna, we must fight the battle in the different spheres of life with all our actions dedicated to Him.

Every Indian should regard it as a religious duty to promote national unity and subdue the narrow spirit of localism and regionalism and foster an all-India outlook.

In developing this wide spiritual outlook, it is fortunate that a Hindu can draw inspiration from his sacred scriptures. These help him to worship Mother India in her visible form presented in so many ways and meditate on her Virata-Deha in all its majesty life and magnificence expressed in the preliminary purificatory mantra.

The worship of Desha-matrikaa is a part of Hindu religion and its texts and prayers are above politics.