|
Arise
O India Of The Ages by Francois Gautier
The West has lost the truth. We have lost the Great Sense, the
meaning of our evolution, of why so much suffering, why dying, why
getting born, why this earth, who are we, what is the soul, what
is reincarnation, where is the ultimate truth about the
universe... But India has kept this truth. India has preserved it
through seven millennium of pitfalls, of genocides and attempts at
throttling her Sanatan Dharma.
And this will be India's gift to this planet during the next
century: to restore to the world its true sense. to recharge
humanity with the real meaning and spirit of life. India will
become the spiritual leader of the world, as India's Great Sage,
Sri Aurobindo, had predicted nearly a century ago : "It is
this religion that I am raising-up before the world, it is this
that I have perfected and developed through the Rishis, saints,
and Avatars, and now it is going forth to do my work among the
nations. I am raising forth this nation to send forth my
word...When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the
Sanatan Dharma that shall rise, it is the Sanatan Dharma that
shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend
herself, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall expand and extend
itself over the world. It is for the Dharma and by the Dharma that
India exists". (India's Rebirth. p. 46 -Uttara speech)
And one is tempted to shout in the ears of all those
"secular", cynical, westernised, Indians of today, the
eternal mantra: "Rise up, O India of the Vedic ages. Thou
livest in the hearts of all thy people. Rise up O Westernised
"secular" India, because thou art also the true India.
Realise in your hearts the genius of the country which is yours.
Stop comparing it to a civilisation, which is crumbling and cease
equating it with parameters that are not hers. Wake up to the
greatness of thy country. Not only the past greatness, which thou
seekest to repossess in its music or in its temples, but the
greatness that IS, there, waiting to be grasped again, waiting to
be brought down concretely. Rise up O India, to the greatness that
IS in you. Rise up O true India".
Ah, we are coming back again full circle to the wonder that WAS
India, the India of the Vedas and the Upanishad, which A.L.
Basham, the best-selling author of "The Wonder That Was
India", criticised as being militant and politically
disunited. But the truth was that they were united in their
diversity, that it was much more democratic and allowed much more
freeplay and freedom, individually and collectively, than the
India of today allows. Let us again reread history, let us look at
India, not through the Western prism, but with the ancient wisdom
that She has bestowed upon us.
For indeed, this is one of the most amazing paradoxes of today's
world: here you have a country, India, which rates today as one of
the poorest on this planet, which is disregarded by most Western
nations (and many of its own people), as irrelevant, backward, too
bureaucratic - and lately, as a hotbed of Hindu fundamentalism.
Yet, India holds the key to the world's future. For India is the
only nation which still preserves in the darkness of Her Himalayan
caves, on the luminous ghats of Benares, in the hearts of her
countless yogis, or even in the minds of her ordinary folk, the
key to the planetary evolution, its future and its hope. This
knowledge which once roamed the shores of the world from Egypt to
China, is today lost everywhere. Europe has now entered a
turbulent Age; it will take a long time before it unites in spite
of the near uniformity of its races and religions. The West, in
its thirst for materialism, does not know anymore where it stands
and has lost this precious knowledge, which India still holds,
alone in the world.
The 21st century then, will be the era of the East; this is where
the sun is going to rise again, after centuries of decadence and
submission to Western colonialism; this is where the focus of the
world is going to shift. And as when India used to shine and send
forth Her Dharma all over the Orient: Japan, Thailand, China,
Burma, or Cambodia and influence their civilisations and religions
for centuries to come, once more She will emit Her light and
radiate, Queen among nations: "India of the ages is not dead
nor has She spoken Her last creative word; She lives and has still
something to do for Herself and the human peoples. And that which
She must seek now to awake, is not an anglicised oriental people,
docile pupil of the West and doomed to repeat the cycle of the
Occident's success and failure, but still the ancient immemorial
Shakti recovering Her deepest self, lifting Her head higher
towards the supreme source of light and strength and turning to
discover the complete meaning and vaster form of Her Dharma."
(Sri Aurobindo).
But for that India has to succeed in her attempt to liberalise her
economy, it has to learn to decentralise the heavy hand of its
Government in Delhi, it has to rewrite its Constitution, which it
adapted blindly from the British, it has to re-indianise her
education methods, reform her political system, which has made a
mockery of democracy… In one word, She has to become a
superpower on par with any European nation. Then, when it will
have the respect and the attention of the West, can Her message of
spirituality and the ancient wisdom of Sanatan Dharma, once again
shine forth and bring down a New World to this beleaguered planet,
which is on the bring of self-destruction.
Francois Gautier
Your comments | Forward it to a friend
Printer Friendly Page
© Sword of Truth, 1999 All rights reserved.
http://www.hinduunity.org
|
