Roots of Hindu Culture - I

हिनानी गुण्नानी दुष्यन्ति इति हिन्दू

मेरुतंत्र

According to this definition from the text of Merutantra, Hindu is one who destroys inferior guna in self¹. Vedas lay the foundation of Hinduism and various schools of thoughts co-existing in it. A Hindu may follow any of the Hindu schools of philosophy such as Advaita (non-dualism), Vishishtadvaita (non-dualism of the qualified whole), Dvaita (dualism), DvaitaAdvaita (dualism with non-dualism); he may follow a tradition centered on any particular divine like Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism etc.; and he may practice any of the yoga systems including bhakti, dharma, samsara etc. In legal language, Supreme Court of India adopts the definition given by Bal Gangadhar Tilak that goes like:

"Acceptance of Vedas with reverence, recognition of the fact that means of salvation are diverse, and realization of truth that number of Gods to be worshipped is large - that indeed is the distinguishing feature of a Hindu."

Source: wiki

Strange but how many Hindus today would like to or do identify themselves with above definitions?

Nonetheless, there is a vast majority for whom these scriptures are sacrosanct. But do they really adopt it the way they are? Has there been a widening gap between what those saints wrote and what we understood and how we understood along all this time - amid various influential phases of Indian history. Do you really think that Sati pratha, purdah system are products of our scriptures? The values behind the norms and cultures specified in these smritis - are they still living or we are just left with hollow and loud noises of so called "Hindu" culture. What exactly is our culture...where are its roots? Do we filter its components as per our fancy and desires, or do we really take pride in being related to Hindu culture? I am on this expedition, and will keep logging about my slow but steady journey of exploring what exactly lies beneath our Hindu ritis and riwaz.

About Hindu scriptures

Hindu law is derived from two classes of text - shruthi (revealed) and smriti (remembered).

Shruthi is believed to be direct revelation of cosmic sound of truth heard by ancient Rishis who then translated it into understandable form. Main shruti literature comprise of Vedas (Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Adharva Veda) and their commentaries (Brahmanas, Arayanakas, Upanishads). Because of Vedas divine and unadulterated form, rule that claims connection to this literature is given more merit. Shruthi exists as a source of Hindu Law.

Smriti was composed after Vedas portraying the traditions of rules on dharma. Smriti consists of memories of wisdom that sages have passed on to their disciples. The earliest scripture in Smriti is Manu Smriti recently edited and translated by Patrick Olivelle. The Smriti literature includes six Vedangas, epics - the Ramayana and th Mahabharata, and th Puranas.

Smriti is considered second authority after Shruthi and is refered when Shruthi does not provide an answer.

Source: wiki

In Bhagvadgeeta, Shri Krishna tells Arjuna

"I preached this imperishable yoga to Vivasvata (Sun) who taught it to Manu, who in turn imparted it to Ishvaku. The saintly kings who received it by family tradition knew it, but in the course of time it was lost. The same yoga of antiquity I shall teach you today. Since you are not only my devotee, but also a dear friend of mine, I shall reveal to you this great mystery."

I believe that culture is product of a society - to bind it in harmony and in togetherness which is sometimes not inherent in nature. For such a force to be effective, a culture must change with changing society. What should not change is - the truth and the harmony.

1. Hindu is not a sanskrit word so not sure of the authenticity of this line!

Love Hatred

I am a woman.

Many writers have epitomised me as a symbol of love.

But I have no intentions of penning down how beautiful love is, and how horrible hatred is? But in a small and limited journey of mine, I intend to write how love and hatred are integral parts of our lives – and, if not balanced from either side – can make you an exploiter or an exploited.

This journey is about accepting the truth with full heartedness – and then walking the path of harmony – where there is room for everybody – for love and for hatred.

It is hard to believe in people who like being optimistic yet simultaneously hate being pessimistic. How can an optimist tread a path towards “life”, unless she accepts the plausible doubts of a pessimist. In that case, an ostrich with a dug head and a pigeon with closed eyes – are the optimists. Or a person who fights the armies with white flag might be classified as a pessimist. Paradigms of optimism and pessimism are not the actions one do, but the dreams one live. A pigeon with closed eyes might be optimistic about his death, but he didn’t dream about being alive either. Had he dreamt? He would have been flying high with his life! Everybody termed non-violence as a pessimistic’s tool, but Gandhi dreamt of freedom and accepted the truth. And from the truth – germinated the acts – term it optimism or pessimism, you may!

Optimism and Pessimism are two colors of life without which life is not fully visible. Similarly, love is survived by hatred and hatred is survived by love. You can not love a helpless fish if you fail to see her place in the food chain of a hungry scavenger! Beyond these debates of blacks and whites – stands truth – aloof and unaltered.

When tides flow against me

And my own shadows leave faith in me

I know I have to rise

From the depths of darkness

As somewhere I am sure

I am the one I believe in

When sun is too bright

And still makes me devoid of light

I know I have to shine

From the heat of unjust

As somewhere I am sure

I am the one I count upon

When my earth slips beneath my feet

And my own values shake my world

I know I have to relive

From the ashes of my errors

As I am sure

I am the one I survive by

Don't cry 'coz you are so right

Love this song...enjoy the school days freshness.
Link on youtube: Wind - Naruto

Script:

cultivate your hunger before you idealize
motivate your anger to make them all realize
climbing the mountain, never coming down
break into the contents, never falling down

my knee is still shaking, like I was twelve
sneaking out of the classroom, by the back door
A man railed at me twice though, but i didnt care
waiting is wasting for people like me

Dont try to live so wise
Dont cry 'coz you are so right
Dont dry with fakes or fears
'coz you will hate... in the end

Tale of two lives

Under the pressure of heights
And cold of mountain
Two drops took birth
To twinkle on the crown

From the top they rolled
Down and pure
To be part of a river
For a journey so vivid…so unsure

Down they found
A small village in greens
One drop wetted the hands of a priest
While another… dampened the fields

And down they saw
A town … blue, black and brown
One camouflaged in the greases of drain
While another evaporated to make some rain

Down they came
To the house of riches
One froze in their glasses of pint
While another quenched their thirst without a hint

And down they came
To the nest of poor
One slipped out through the leaky pail
While another quenched the thirst yet again

Thence they reached
To the shores of their destiny
One survived by the ships aboard
While another … set herself free in the happy waves

Thats how ended the two tales
tales of two lives
one surviving

and the one ... who lived!

Research vs Reality - piling up the gap

An academic researcher is calibrated from the yardstick of his research papers published. His medals are the number of stars search engines have given to his article, or number of times his work is cited. Have search engines or research publication repositories indicated how many times has his research been actually adopted by the clients; how many products have claimed patents based on this research article etc.
Cut the story short and move to a new one...
A corporate researcher is calibrated with the yardstick of actual performance improvement brought in by his work. His work can be seen as a piece of creativity - inspired by huge business constraints subjected on his naive ideas.
Am I concluding something! Being less literate about our second story, its hard to comment anything on it. Can a corporate house researcher afford to carry his own experiments? Can he finally implement what he believes in? Can he take the ownership of risk he wants to take by introducing entirely new concept in the industry?

Dis-orienting for reality sake

I am one of those people who swear every "good night" with a wish to wake up early and to go for a morning walk...and I am commited enough to swear it every single night since don't know when! I do succeed .1% of times every year, and that's enough introduction about me I guess.

Today I woke up with one of those similar commitments - of writing something which was trying to get shape somewhere inside the sub-conscious mind.
Quite often I have heard people around me - including myself - saying "we are supposed to do things this way or we are not supposed to do things that way", "that is expected, and that is not expected of us". You keep falling in this rut, and keep dragging people into it - don't blame anyone, this is characteristic of any matured or wannabe matured system. At some places, this process is institutionalized with the name of orientation programs. But in wake of emphasizing some good points, we try to hardcode them as rules or norms. And, this process is so much like a black hole spiral that we conitnue converging our ideas, and vision. We stop experimenting, and the worst - we loose sight of something bigger than what we are doing, or what we can do.
What my point is - I don't know - human mind is inherently rebellious and it demands freedom. I think that is why even after knowing that fate of each boom is a burst of bubble - capitalism survives; even after knowing dis-economies of free services- open source survives.
I think I have become one of those abstract writers who write with something in mind, but till the end, are unable to enable the reader make sense of it.