17. Listen to Heart – Be Rich by Enriching Tradition….

Hari Bol....

17. Listen to Heart – Be Rich by Enriching Tradition….

India is a country which has various culture and religion. Every culture and every religion has its own values and tradition. We as Indians respect the values and tradition of all culture and religion. We all know that all culture and tradition leads to the same destination of attaining and practicing humanity and thus asks us to move towards keeping our Soul pure.

We as Indians are looked upon as Human beings with Humanity. Indians are supposed to be mild, soft calm without any harshness in our principles and ideals. We have tolerance and believe in ahimsa. All our great leaders struggled hard to get Independence and freedom was achieved without taking a drop of blood. We all stand together with unity. India has a fusion of old traditional values with modern principle which satisfy all the three generations in present India. India is a secular country having freedom of worship without any violation of any other religious beliefs. This is one of the reasons we have festivals throughout the year which we all enjoy and celebrate together. The Indian Social System is mostly based on the Joint family System, but for some of the recently cropped nuclear families. The families are closely knit with Grandfathers, fathers, sons and grandsons sharing the same spirit, tradition and property. India’s population has descended from a variety of races. The oldest ones are the Negroid aboriginals called the Adivasis or First settlers. Then there are the Dravidians, The Aryans, the Mongols, The Semites and innumerable inter-mixtures of one with the other. The great Epic, The Mahabharata and the sacred text, the Bhagavad-Gita teaches the Indians that survival can only be in terms of quality of life. It provides a framework of values to make the Indian culture well- groomed.

I was going through an article on ‘The Indian Traditional Values and their Indications for Education in India in the Modern Age of Science & Technology’ by D.D. Vadekar. I would like to share some of its aspect. The Indian traditions and values, has already and long been with us and that it is the other side moderns science and technology, which has come in for that confrontation with it, though it has been with us for a century and more and has already been having its significant impact on the first. The Indian tradition and values, which we are in search of, in present context of our efforts to determine our educational goals and values to suit the requirements of our contemporary life in a scientific and technological world, need not to be transcendentally philosophical or religious ones. Both are speculative and intuitive essays of human spirit, which at their highest level, ultimately and in the last resort, impinge upon the transcendental and the cosmic. The traditional Indian values corresponds to; Intellectual – Speculative, Social – Cultural and Moral Spiritual.

I personally belong to a very simple middle class farmer’s family. I have stayed for few years in my village ‘Muraura’ which is in old and great Nalanda District in Bihar. You must be aware of Nalanda University about which we all have studied during our school days. I am lucky to be part of that historical place. Courtesy to my parents’ vision that they shifted me in Scindia School, Gwalior for my studies and my sisters were also put in Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior. My parents ensured that we spent our vacations in the village itself so that we are enriched with our traditional – family culture, core values and be spirituals by heart which is must for any human beings. I would once again like to quote my grandfather’s view,” You have come as human beings in this world and the foremost aim should be to attain and practice humanity. The professional degrees will automatically fall in line”. I have a friend who has also passed out from a reputed Public school and spent his life in hostel. Coincidentally we have an English teacher as common. He has taught in both the institutions. We planned to meet him who has settle down in a city close by where we are. We wanted to give him a surprise so we reached to his place one day without any call. We rang the bell. The door was opened by his wife – our respected madam (what we use to call her in school). We introduced ourselves and were in the hall where are great Guru was sitting and reading some books. I touched the feet of madam and sir. Sir shook hands with me and asked me to relax. Similarly my friend also paid equal respect to both of them by saying hello and then bowed down to take their blessings. They both welcomed us as their child and took us into their arms. We were full of emotions. We were overwhelmed with emotions. Our eyes were full of tears. In fact we had to wipe our tears. The tears were of happiness and love and respect. We started chatting and gossiping and was refreshing our old memories. My friend asked, “Sir you have taught in Scindia and in my school. Could you be fair enough to say the difference between both institutions?” He jokingly continued, “My school is better”. Sir replied, “I will try to be honest as you both are grown up and matured. Both schools have their own core values which has made both competing each other. Both have their own educational system which is equivalent”. We both were looking each other and were in the process of thinking that, “Is it a wrong question in a wrong time.” Sir continued, “I will now give you an example. He said about me that when I entered the hall I first touched his feet and then said hello and about my friend, he said hello and then bowed. This is the difference between both the schools. Scindians are grown up with Indian culture and trained of modern techniques to move in the society where as in other school; students are grown with modern culture and trained of Indian culture”.

By putting us in hostel at Scindia and making we stay in the village our parents ensured that the culture was well transferred from their generation to ours and ensuring that their children were well prepared to move in the modern society also. By this I would once again like to take this opportunity to thank my parents and the Lord. We are grateful to you.

The survival and destruction of a community depends upon the core values and traditions which cherished by passing on to the next generations. A family which grows with roots rises up and blossom and the family which loses its core values will be destroyed. Arjuna argues with Krishna that if fights the battle, adharma (impiety) will prevail in the community once the family is destroyed. He says that family’s destruction will take place not only physically but also ethically with its religious values. But he had forgotten that at the time of Mahabharatha war the community had already plunged to its lowest level of morality. The values had been lost. The practicing of humanity had degraded. The Kauravas had brought on this downfall of the community. The Pandavas were trying to restore with help of Krishna. But their efforts had failed. The only recourse was to destroy the evil forces with negative energy and vibration. The war was inevitable. So Arjun’s fallacy in maintaining that destruction of families will bring about adharama (impiety). Only through the destruction of those unrighteous families could be restored.

All Glories to Lord Krishna & All His Loving Devotees….. Hari Bol……

Courtesy : Bhagavad-Gita As It Is (by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ) ,  Srimad Bhagavad-Gita ( by A. Parthasarathy  & www.gitadaily.com ) Chapter 1 : Text 40