VIDYA GAURI GADOO RESEARCH CENTRE 71, SUNDER BLOCK, SHAKARPUR, DELHI-110092, Tel.22517672, Mob; 9891297912 Email; cl.gadoo@gmail;vggadoo@yahoo Blog: clgadoo.blogspot Hindu Sanskrti (Hindu Spiritual System) HISTORICAL RETROSPECT Hindu Sanskrti or Hindu Spiritual System, has evolved as a part of the Sanskrit culture of ancient India. Having evolved from its beginnings in the Vedic civilization, it has evolved through centuries of the history of India. The people of India are the descendents of the proto-Aryan people who lived in India from time immemorial. The Hindu spiritual system has a Vedic substratum, and its theological postulates, mythology, and legends are a part of the Sanatana Dharma. There is no sectarianism, no fake mysticism, and no pagan obscure rites in Sanatana Dharma. The rituals observed by the Hindus of India are Vedic in principle. The form of worship, the Puja-Padvati, is also Vedic in its structure. Hindus meditating every morning, or doing his Puja, chanting Bhajans, practicing his Asanas, or doing Pranayama, does not feel he is doing anything out of the ordinary. He has inherited it and firmly believes Pranayama, Indian science of breathing, is the physical conduit to the Divine. “Breath of life, your form is dearer to me than any physical form. I yearn for your healing touch, knowing that when you touch me, I am whole.” Atharva Veda, 11:4- 7. Sanatana literally means eternal, that which has no beginning or end. That which is timeless cannot have a beginning or end. Therefore, by definition, it is beyond the constraints of time, and that is why it is said to be the oldest living religion in the world. The Hindu religion is a process in time, which is not divided between what is believed to be divine and what is believed pagan. Hindu religious culture does not have pagan past. It has continuity, which is its most characteristic feature. The spiritual quest for the realization of Parmatman is original to the Hindu spiritual system, which underlines the essential unity between the universal and the essential. The aim of the Hindu religion is Self-realization (Atma-jnana) by each individual (jiva): to seek the Truth, to know the Truth, to be the Truth, to be a liberated soul (jivanamukta) here and now .Over the ages there have been several Acharyas and Rishis who have expounded on the timeless Truth in their own way. “Truth is one; many are its names.”- Rigveda David Frawley considers that breaking away between the West and the East is totally artificial and was created by Europe to prove its material and intellectual superiority.“Everything that then came from the East,” he writes,“took an inferior, or pagan value.” And yet, the European scientific spirit found its roots in Greece, whose religion was also pagan and was inspired by Hindu practices. He concludes; “If only the West knew that philosophical and religious framework from which emerged later European science, partakes much more with eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, than with the Judeo-Christian tradition, they would look at India differently.” Civilization is a social phenomenon. The Sanskrit civilization constitutes the great heritage of our country. It flourished in different regions, mainly on the banks of the rivers, by socio-religious and cultural bonds till today. It was on the banks of the lost sacred river Saraswati, that the Vedic Rishis perceived the hymns of the Vedas, in Sanskrit. Almost all ancient scriptures of Vedic India were written in Sanskrit only. These written records are the kernel of Hindu sacred literature.Vedic culture spread over the banks of Indus and other rivers and became integral part of Aryan culture. In mythology the prominence of Saraswati has taken over by Ganga. The waters of sacred Ganga, has purified Indian life in all ages by washing out the dirt of time. Rishi is a word of multi-dimensional shades. Besides a sage and seer this word means Jaratri (singer), Karu (artist in words), Vipra (Inspired one), Dhira (one in whom the intellect has been aroused), Manishi (Intellectual, Powerful) and Veda, the wise one. There are three categories of Rishis. First category, which saw the Veda or Dharma in their hearts with the help of Pratibha (Intuition), are Paramarsi or Maharishi, the others who got it through Upadesa (Communication) were second, Srutarsi and the third that practiced and wrote it for the others, are Rishis. George Clifford White Worth writes; “Rishi (Sanskrit) a holy sage, one who has heard the eternal voice, or seen the eternal words of revelation and through whom Divine knowledge has been transmitted to the Brahmins.” Swami Vivekananda said about Hinduism at the ‘World Parliament of Religion’ during Septmember1893 at Chicago; “The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience, how a book can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical and spiritual relations between soul and soul and between individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before their discovery, and would remain even if we forgot them.The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, and we honor them as perfected beings. I am glad to tell this audience that some of the very greatest of them were women.” Sri Aurobindo writes in ‘Foundations of Indian Culture’ (p.255); “The ancient and classical literature of the Sanskrit tongue shows both in quality and in body an abundance of excellence, in their potent originality and force and beauty, in their substance and art and structure, in grandeur and justice and charm of speech, and in the heightened width of the reach of their spirit which stands very evidently in the front rank among the world’s greatest literatures.” T.S.Eliot has defined culture as the “way of life of a particular people living together in one place: that which makes life worth living; that which makes a society---It includes Arts, Manners, Religion and ideas.” Professor Childe writes; “I stood on a mound of Mohenjodaro in the Indus valley in the North-West of India, and all around me lay the houses and streets of this ancient city that is said to have existed over five thousand years ago; and even then it was an old and well developed civilization---The Indus Civilization.” Swami Sankarananda, the author of ‘Rig Vedic Culture of the Pre-Historic Indus’ writes; “Those people went with the script and culture as well as the language from the Indus Valley. These colonists spread the Indus Civilization to the Mediterranean shores and eventually became the fathers of the civilization of Greece and Rome.” (Vol.1 Chap1, P50). Long before the Egyptian or Sumerian cultures, there flourished Indus Valley Civilization in India. The culture of Mohenjodaro and Harappa was post Vaidika or Mohenjodaro and Harappa, “that these cities were post Vedic date and that the seal and other objects of interest were completely Aryan in character and that the language impressed on the seals was Sanskrit” Aryatarangini, P13. Australian historian, Auther Basham notes; “The ancient civilization of India differs from Egypt, Mesopotania and Greece, in that its traditions have been preserved without break down to the presene day.” American mathematician A.Seindenberg writes; “Arithmetic equations from the Sulba Sutras were used in the observation of triangle by the Babylonians and the theory of contraries and of inexactitude in arithmetic methods, discovered by Hindus, inspired Pythagorean mathematics.” French astronomer Jean-Claude Bailly observed; “the Hindu astronomic systems were much more ancient than those of Greeks or even Egyptians and the movement of stars which was calculated by the Hindus 4500 years ago, does not differ from those used today by even one minute.” Artabhatta in 5th century stated that the earth revolves around the sun. In his treatise Aryabhatteam, he clearly states that earth is round; it rotates on its axis, orbits the sun and is suspended in space. And explains that lunar and solar eclipses occur by the interplay of the sun, the moon and the earth. In his Surya Sidhanta, the ancient Indian astronomer Bhaskar Acharya notes; “Objects fall on earth due to a force of attraction by the earth. Therefore, the earth, planets, constellations, moon and sun are held in orbit due to this attraction.” Newton re-discovered the Law of Gravity, 1200 years later. “What is that by being known, everything is known?” -Mundaka Upanishad Seal of Pashupati Seal from Mohenjodaro Yoga the spiritual aspect in Sanatana Dharma is a way to Godhood. It is discipline of mind and body ultimately leading to self-realization. Yoga was practiced during ancient times. It is evident from the terracotta figurines from Mohenjodaro depicting Yogic Asans. The famous Pasupati seal is pictorial representation of the Atharva Vedic hymn (II.34). The presiding deity of the hymn being Pasupati, the lord of beasts, who is described in the hymn as the lord of both biped and quadrupeds and is united with his creation through mind and vision. This union is possible only through the Yogic trance. The deity on the seal Pasupati is seen to be sitting in a Yogic posture. It is evident that people living during those times were not only familiar but were practicing Yoga as spiritual discipline. Other Indus Valley seals seem to depict what came to be known as the “Seven Mothers,” still worshipped in contemporary Hinduism. B.B. Lal, the most prominent Indian archaeologist of the Indus Valley culture, argues that other artifacts and fire sites of the Indus Valley complex appear to be designed for rituals associated with the Vedic ritual tradition, which is usually dated many centuries later. Some practices of Hinduism must have originated in Neolithic times (4000 B.C). The worship of certain plants and animals as sacred, for instance, could very likely have very great antiquity. The worship of Goddesses, too, a part of Hinduism today, may be a feature that originated in the Neolithic. At Boghaz Koy, Turkey (1350 BC), stone inscription of the treaty with Mitanni lists as divine witnesses the Vedic deities; Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and the Nasatyas (Ashvins). Recently, Indus seals have been reportedly deciphered by Dr. Rajaram and Dr. Jha and according to them; “the Harappan civilization, of which the seals are product, belong to later part of the Vedic Age. It had close connections with Vedantic works like Sutras and the Upanishads. The style of writing reflects the short aphorisms found in Sutra works. The imagery and symbolism are strongly Vedic. The vocabulary depends heavily on the Vedic glossary Nighantu and its commentary by Yaska known as the Nirukta.The name of Yaska is found on at least two seals, possibly three. There are references to Vedic kings and Sages as well as place names. Of particular interest are references to Plakshagra, the birth place of Saraswati River, and Sapta Apah or the land of the Seven Rivers.” Dr.Wheeler says; “the Harappans worshipped Mother Goddess, Shiva and the Linga.” He further says; “it is now certain that the remnants of the big building 52 feet long, 40 feet wide and with walls 4 ft. thick are the remains of a temple. Many of the idols and the linga were discovered from this spot. He has no doubt that the Harappans were Hindus, and that temple worship had a place then.” Dr. Subash Kak adds; “There is evidence of temple structures in the Harappan period in addition to iconography that recalls the goddess. Structures dating to 2000 BC, built in the design of Yantras, have been unearthed in northern Afghanistan. There is ample evidence for continuity in the religious and artistic tradition of India from the Harappan times. The constructions of the Harappan period (2600-1900 BC) appear to be according to the Vedic principles. The dynamic ratio of 1:2:4 is the most commonly encountered size of rooms of houses, in the overall plan of houses and the construction of large public buildings. This ratio is also reflected in the overall plan of the large walled sector at Mohenjo-Daro called the citadel mound. It is even the most commonly encountered brick size.” According to the Sthapatya Veda (the Indian tradition of architecture), the temple and the town should mirror the cosmos. The temple architecture and the city plan are, therefore, related in their conception. In the basic Vedic scheme the circle represents the earth and the square represents the heavens or the deity. Volwahsen (2001) has remarked on the continuity in the Indian architectural tradition. “The Harappan cities have a grid plan, just as is recommended in the Vedic manuals. The square shape represents the heavens, with the four directions representing the cardinal directions as well as the two solstices and the equinoxes of the sun’s orbit.” Diana Eck puts it in her ground breaking study of Hindu iconography, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India;“ Long before people wrote textual treatises, they wrote in images…One must learn to read these visual texts with the same insight and interpretive skill that is brought to the reading and interpretation of scriptures, commentaries, and theologies.” (Eck, 1998: 12-13) B.B.Lal was the first in the Indian sub-continent to view the archaeological data against the background of Puranic and Epics literature and opinioned that a large number of sites associated with the Mahabharata contain the same ceramic industry, i.e., the Painted Grey Ware in their lower level (Lal, 1954-55, AI, 10-11). The excavation at Hastinapura, named after King Hastin of the Puranic dynasty confirmed the stratigraphy of the Painted Grey Ware in the upper Ganga basin. He proposed a time bracket of 1100-800B.C. for PGW and associated these settlers with the early stock of Aryan in India. The Archaeological Survey of India further excavated Ram Janmabhumi in 2002-2003. To mention in the words of excavators, “the site (Trench AYD-1—G7) has also proved to be significant for taking back its antiquarian remains for the first time to 1300BCE.” North India which were worshiped from earliest times till today, other earliest instances of Indian temples of which are the rock-cut and cave temples of Southern and Western India, dating to the 3rd and the 2nd centuries B.C. which provide some of the first known images of Hindu iconography. “Shaivism and Shaktism are thought by some scholars to have roots reaching back to the Indus valley civilization, although others consider the evidence inconclusive, based as it is on iconographic similarities rather than textual evidence.” (Flood 2003: 91, 204) The Indus-Saraswati valley civilization spread over more than 250,000 square miles, and included over 1600 sites. Most of the villages and cities were laid out on an exact north-south grid on sites west of the river, and were built with kiln-fired bricks of uniform size. Sites have been found dating from 6500-7000BC.” writes, Kenneth Chandler in ‘Origins of Vedic Civilization.’ Mother Goddesses from Mohenjodero Rig Vedic Hindus, living in the space-time continuum of the Saraswati-Harappan-Sind Valley cultures, of which Kashmir, Ghandara in the north-west, the whole expanse of central India in the south and the Hill country of India, had conceptualized universal existence as the expression of a single reality---the Parmatman, of whom force-energy was a part and an attribute. Parmatman and in him the force or energy, were the sole source of creation, its sustenance, and was governed by the dissolution it suffered. The force or the energy, which formed a part of the Parmatman or was inherent formation, an attribute of the Parmatman, which they described as Shakti in early Vedic age, symbolized the creation, which without the Parmatman exercising it, could not have led to the creation of this universal existence. The Rig Vedic people worshipped the Parmatman and the Shakti---the God and the Mother Goddess with the same reverence. In fact, the worship of the Parmatman, the personification of God is the worship of Shakti, the personification of Mother Goddess. Dr.M.K.Teng notes; “that the Rig Vedic people were perhaps, the first of people among various civilizations, who were able to conceptualize force as Parmatman---which are same but act differently.” The iconic manifestation of the divine reality in the Hindu religion or more specifically the Sanskrit religious culture has a content, which is drawn from the geographical boundaries of the Hindu India and represents the intellectual expression of its generations. The Hindu temples and the practice of worship in them must be differentiated from what idol worship is considered to be as a Semitic tradition of pagan origin. Idol worship is a concept of the Semitic civilization and the social prohibition it has been subject to in the later evolution of the Semitic civilization must be differentiated from temple worship in the Hindu religious culture. The two civilizations represent two different world views, two different streams of consciousness, two different theories of action, and two different views of the real, the apparent and the relative and two different perspectives of space and time as well as two different universes of human experience. For at least two reasons the Hindu tradition contains the greatest diversity of any world tradition. First, Hinduism spans the longest stretch of time of the major world religions, with even the more conservative views setting it as well over 7,000 years old. Throughout this expanse of time, the Hindu tradition has been extremely conservative about abandoning elements that have been historically superseded. Instead, these elements have often been preserved and given new importance, resulting in historical layers of considerable diversity within the tradition. Second, Hinduism has organically absorbed hundreds of separate cultural traditions, expressed in as many as 300 languages. Archaeological evidence is more reliable and authentic than literary evidence. It has been rightly acknowledged by antiquarians like Marshall, Mackay, Piggot and Wheeler that some of the basic elements of the historic religious beliefs and practices of India go back to the Harappan culture or Indus civilization of the third millennium BCE. A steatite seal from Mohenjodaro, discovered by E. Mackay, and described by John Marshall as the prototype of historic Śhiva, “Trimurti,” and “Paśupati,” deserves special mention. Long before the ideas of Śhiva, Mahādeva, Trimurti and Paśupati had come into existence in historic Hinduism, Another figure on a seal is supposed to be that of a priest. This human figure shows only the upper half of the body, the eyes are almost closed, seemingly in meditation; he wears a beard and long hair; the cloth on his body keeping the right arm uncovered. There is then a stone figure of a man clearly seated in meditation, dating from the second millennium BCE. The figure of another ascetic found on a steatite seal from Mohenjodaro, depicting a man seated in a cross-legged yogic posture. He is flanked by two human worshippers with raised and folded hands apparently in adoration: behind each of these worshippers is a snake (nāga) in half-rearing posture. This clearly shows that origin of worship in Hinduism is Vedic. In fact, Hinduism rarely declined; it went on growing with the growth of centuries, and it retained its original Aryan character in some form or another even when it had been refined and transformed by non-Brāhmanical doctrines and practices. B.B.Lal was the first in the Indian sub-continent to view the archaeological data against the background of Puranic and Epics literature and opinioned that a large number of sites associated with the Mahabharata contain the same ceramic industry, i.e., the Painted Grey Ware in their lower level (Lal, 1954-55, AI, 10-11). The excavation at Hastinapura, named after King Hastin of the Puranic dynasty confirmed the stratigraphy of the Painted Grey Ware in the upper Ganga basin. He proposed a time bracket of 1100-800B.C. for PGW and associated these settlers with the early stock of Aryan in India. The Archaeological Survey of India further excavated Ram Janmabhumi in 2002-2003. To mention in the words of excavators, “the site (Trench AYD-1—G7) has also proved to be significant for taking back its antiquarian remains for the first time to 1300BCE.” Dikshit, Mani, Pl.7; structures of Dikshit, Mani, Pl.8; comparision of Mother period I, Bhirrana (after L.S.Rao) Goddess from Bhirrana and Mehrgarh In their findings K.N.Dikshit and B.R.Mani report; [‘PURATATTVA’ journal of the Indian Archaeology Society, New Delhi(Number 42—2012)] “For the first time, on the basis of radio-metric dates from Bhirrana(district Fatehbad, Haryana), the cultural remains of Pre-Early Harappa horizon go back to the time bracket of 7380 BCE to 6201 BCE representing the Hakra Ware Culture (plate 7)….It has been found that the clay ‘Mother Goddess’ figurines from the levels dating back to 6000 BCE from both Mehergarh and Bhirrana have marked similarity (plate 8)….When the site of Mehrgarh was excavated by a joint team of Pak and French archaeologists in Baluchistan from 1974 to 1985 and the C14 dates of 8th—7th millennium BCE were found, the archaeologists were taken aback as civilization of the sub-continent was pushed almost 3000 years back than what was considered then.” The beginning of India’s history has been pushed back by more than 2000 years, making it oldest history, older than Egypt and Mesopotamia The finding was announced at the International Conference on Harappa Archaeology, organized by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) at Chandigarh in November 2012. Hindustan Times dated 4rth Nov.2012, reports; Based on their research, B.R Mani, ASI Joint Director General and K.N Dikshit, former ASI Joint Director General “The preliminary results of the data from early sites of the Indo-Pak subcontinent suggest that Indian civilization emerged in the 8th millennium BC in Ghaggar-Hakra and Baluichistan area.” “On the basis of radio-metric dates from Bhirrana (Haryana), the cultural remains of the pre-early Harappa horizon go back to 7380 BC TO 6201 BC”. In other words archaeological evidence has proved beyond doubt that Indian Civilization, the Sanskrit Civilization, has grown during Vedic period. “Nothing in this world purifies like spiritual wisdom. It is the perfection achieved in time through the path of Yoga, the path which leads to the Self-within.”(Bhagwad Gita;4.37-38) CHAMAN LAL GADOO (CHAIRMAN)
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 15:36:15 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015