The Message of Spiritual India | Happy Independence Day!

Prior to the British occupation of India, there was no such word as "Hinduism". There was really only a very diverse range of spiritual attitudes all coexisting alongside one another in a spirit of not only tolerance, but celebration. 

Notice the tremendous resilience India has demonstrated through her 5000 year old (by conservative Western estimates) civilization. The fundamental truths she articulated in the Upanishads at the very dawn of human civilization continue to be chanted by millions of Hindus all over the world. Many of these Hindus are illiterate and yet you will find them throouhgly educated and cultured, immersed as they are in India's epics the Rāmāyana, the Mahābhārata and the Purānas. These spiritual ideas remain ever strong and ever vital and ever able to inspire even after all those shocks and blows and instabilities that India has faced in the last ~5000 or so years. Not only has she brushed off these things as minor inconveniences in the steady march of her civilization, but she regards no one as an enemy; she has deep love for every nation and its ideals and above all, she is willing to share freely and unstintingly of her cultural wealth with anyone and everyone who sincerely comes seeking it. All of this was perhaps best demonstrated by the late 18th century phenomena of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a priest of Kālī in the Dakshineshwar temple who demonstrated in light of his own spiritual experiences that all religions were true. He had such a spiritual appetite that in the course of his life, he practiced all the sādhanas of Hinduism at the time (Shakta Tantra, Vaishnavism, Vedanta etc.) as well as Islam and Christianity. As a result of this, he felt that God, being infinite can be reached and enjoyed in infinite numbers of ways and as such, cannot be confined to any one religion.

On September 11th, 1893, at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda, the foremost disciple of the aforementioned Sri Ramakrishna, spoke before an American audience on the ideals of India. Above all, he stressed the primacy of the spiritual question, the innate divinity of the soul and the harmony of all religions as so many valid attempts to grasp the One Ineffable Truth. I think that all the developments in the American and European New Age which its emphasis on syncretism and its renewed faith in spiritual verities can be traced back to that one speech in 1893 where Swami Vivekananada declared in a voice full of power:

"my sisters and brother of America!" 
".....I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions of all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered into our bosom the purest remnants of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to a religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation"

May all of these words be a "a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine peached in the Gita": 

ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम् |
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्या: पार्थ

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