In this
ancient land of India, we are used to seeing people who are utterly poor,
living on the pavements and vending fruits, vegetables or some little scrap of
a toy at a traffic junction just to make ends meet. They live under a tarpaulin and wake up each
day to some customer’s call for a small purchase. In the morning, I have seen women whose face
is weathered by the vagaries of life, make themselves up with a few glass
bangles, and a few glittering pieces of jewellery, beads and ear rings and
drawing the drift of their saree over their heads, adorn their foreheads with
vermilion and start working to earn a few rupees so they can live another
day. Today’s materialistic culture has
driven these traders to the fringes, to a life of uncertainty and yet they
continue to serve a valuable role in society and cherish the independence that
trading gives them.
India’s
ancient culture was built around three aspects of work culture – yajña, daana and tapas. Yajña
is often translated as sacrifice. What
is the relation between our work [karma]
and yajña? In the western world,
people project their strengths and skills and try to get as much as possible in
terms of remuneration. In India the
brightest minds were told that they shall be treasured, respected and
maintained by the rest of society. And
for the longest time, those that wanted to pursue study, teaching and the high
road were fed by the rest of the society, taken care of, and in turn they provided
true education for life and living, well meaning counsel and were always looked
up to. The life of the highest of men was
built on pure acceptance, a complete lack of selfish desire, built around a
coveted simplicity that kept them in touch with reality all the time. Thus the brightest minds were not driven to
create without regard to man or his environment. Even amongst India’s divine trinity, Brahma,
who is the creator, is shown with four heads indicating that he would create
with a 360 degree vision – and not with a myopic vision. And yet he was not worshipped. Creativity was always subordinate to the art
of sustenance and destruction. Creative
works of our land depict the destruction of that which is detrimental,
degrading and deleterious and give form to that which is enduring, enlightening
and enlivening. Yajña meant that every citizen would sacrifice some of what he
earnt towards the well being of fellow beings and society at large – it was not
tax – it was a giving up of some of the fruits of one’s toil.
Many years
ago when my child was still a baby, an aged lady banana seller who did not even
have a blouse to wear, gave to my child, two bananas more than what I purchased
– ‘this is from me to your baby’, she said.
This is daana or true
charity. She was carrying a bamboo tray
of bananas on her head and perhaps she could not earn more than two meals even
she had sold the entire tray for the price of her asking. And yet, the generosity of spirit, the
capability of giving was always preserved in the Indian psyche. Our
trading community was always known for their generosity. The richest people spent on public projects
and were given titles such as ‘Dharmaprakasha’
– he who with his generosity lights the lamp of dharma in others. This noble
attitude comes from true education.
Even our
kings gave up their kingdoms and retired to the forest to perform penance at
some point in life. Tapas or penance is the art of subduing one’s mind-generated
impulses. The great culture of yajña, daana and tapas must be revived
if we should prevent more and more people from becoming lost to the glorious
opportunity of human life. Everyday the
television channels broadcast mindless and de-humanising news-bits and bombard
your senses with unending tickers broadcasting the worst events of the day with
some vague hope that enhanced viewership will increase their profits. Will not such profit earnt through the glorifying
the images of the degradation of human life eventually degrade the profiteer
himself?
If we go by
the western way of looking at things and their education model, soon we will
lose all of our spiritual wealth. For
millennia people all over the world have struggled through this material life
and in the end sought the benevolent guidance of the seers of India and it is
up to us to preserve this spiritual wealth.
It is not to be seen as a fashionable thing to seek spirituality - it is
the paramount necessity of the day that we seek it and live it in our lives. Without a spiritual anchor that is lodged securely
in the depths of the ocean of life, we will drift – be driven by a waxing and
waning mind – and store negativity and dark energies in our subtle bodies. And if we do nothing to change this
situation, this darkness will drive many into clinical depression - and the rising number of people in depression is an indication.
In the name
of economic reforms and globalisation, profiteers are seeking to steal the few
last rupees that sustain the millions of poor that still live happily in this
ancient land by inflating food prices through commodity trading. This has already started resulting in instances of our hard working humble farmers and even struggling lower income families - people who have worked with pride and honesty - resorting to suicide. Many large multinational
corporations will give nothing in charity to a cause that they think will not
benefit their company in the end. This
is not daana by any means. It is another self serving expenditure
through the garb of charity. Our
education must enable us to choose that which is truly sustainable and truly
uplifting.
The
fundamental concepts of India’s great work culture - yajña, daana and tapas - were designed around converting material
wealth into spiritual wealth. We must
not be lead by our wayward mind. But we
must lead it so that we are not driven to failure by it. Therefore leadership must come from those who
have crossed the mind and can call the bluff of all that is mind-created. Leadership in education must come from those
who have conquered the mind and imbibed a spiritual life and learning. It is most natural for man to be rooted in
his spirit. When he abandons his
spiritual self and tries to lay the foundation of life on mind generated constructs,
then it is only a matter of time before this castle collapses.
Whenever we
take something lesser than we deserve, the balance gets transformed into
spiritual wealth. Whenever we work
selflessly, the energy that we put in, gets transformed into spiritual
wealth. Our arts, our culture, our
wonderfully colourful and decorative dress culture, our stories and heritage
are all aimed at creating spiritual wealth.
And it is this spiritual wealth that brings a smile on the banana seller
when she sees a small baby. The humblest
of humble in this vast country carry this spiritual wealth and that is what
enables them to live another day. And we
hope that those that matter will see the wisdom of our ancient heritage and
utilise the opportunities in their hands to reform our education to create a
generation that is rooted in reality, truth and happiness.
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