Sunday 27 November 2016

The Hindu view of Life -3

Many people falsely believed that the Hindu regeneration movement had nothing to offer to mitigate the distress or to resolve the dilemma faced by the world. To them, the approach of Shri Guruji was based on narrow Hindu sectarianism whereas the situation demanded an alternate worldview, which could provide hope and cheer for the future of all humanity. Shri Guruji unambiguously stated that much before capitalism and communism were even thought of, our forefathers in India had been thinking about the whole world and its all-round welfare. The prayer on their lips was "Lokassamasta Sukhino Bhavantu". Let the whole world be happy.

While the west based its philosophy on principles of competition and conflict, and envisaged survival only for the fittest, the Hindu paradigm visualized the entire world as one family. The highest that the west could promise was the greatest good of the greatest number. Bharat wanted to ensure that every one however small or insignificant had a proper and worthy place in the scheme of life.

According to Shri Guruji, the different western views were incapable of offering a way of life, wherein not only human beings but also the entire creation will find a safe and secure place to occupy. This is inherent in their philosophy whether it is capitalist or communist. Both are compartmental and not comprehensive, because they are based on gross materialistic approach. Neither capitalism, nor communism that came as a reaction to the capitalism, could provide a lasting and peaceful solution because both were essentially materialistic. It was only the Hindu approach based on a spiritual view of things that could provide the real alternative.

Spirituality does not compartmentalize. It does not reject material needs and requirements of man. It only locates and evaluates them in the total context. It gives a new view and vision of life, which includes both material welfare and spiritual enlightenment. Materialism does not ensure full growth of man. It indeed dwarfs him by abolishing the spiritual dimension altogether. For the materialist, whether a capitalist or a communist, man is essentially a body with or without a soul whereas spirituality envisages man as an embodied Divine spark or soul. It encompasses both the aspects and envisages a perfect or an integral man. Shri Guruji called him 'Poorna Manav'.

This concept of 'Poorna Manav', which Shri Guruji invoked, was the cornerstone of the philosophy of integral humanism elaborately propounded by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. "Integral humanism" was indeed a restatement of the Hindu social philosophy based on Sanatana Dharma in the context of the present situation which is posited not merely as another alternative or just a Third Way but as the real way ahead for humanity sandwiched between capitalism and communism in those days.

.....Sri P Parameswarn ji .....contd

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