Indian Independence Day

The Spirit of India

Speech on India independence Day, 

by Michael Dolan/ Mahayogi

Given at St. Petersburg, Russia

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been asked to make a few remarks on the independence of the Indian spirit.  The Indian spirit has endured domination by many other cultures over the centuries and yet it has absorbed these cultures and vanquished.

This has been seen throughout history.  Since those who ignore history are doomed to repeat its mistakes I thought we might take a moment to look into that history.  The spirit of India has survived many twists and turns.

When the Vedic Age of the Mahabharata disintegrated and became corrupted by a rapacious Brahmanism the Buddha appeared in Gaya to correct the course-- compassion and wisdom became the order of the day.  Mere ritual was dismissed in favor of personal enlightenment.  Where priests had become corrupt, the Buddha encouraged honesty – even skepticism.

The reforms were profound and Buddhist compassion and wisdom one the day.  But while his wisdom was welcome his skepticism and antipathy to Vedic tradition was eventually banished from the Indian subcontinent to thrive instead in the far off lands of China and Japan.

The Vedic tradition in the spirit of India emerged refreshed from the reforms of the avatar Buddha and the old gods Shiva and Vishnu returned in all their glory.  These traditions were further purified by the teachings of the great acharya, Shankara, who brought strict monastic discipline to his philosophical system of Vedanta.

And so it was that for thousands of years the unbroken tradition of humble saints living a simple life of truthseeking has continued. And while the social system of varnashram dharma has often faced criticism for its lack of social mobility the ideal that noble kings and princes will be guided in their rule by enlightened truth seekers is still a worthy goal for any society.

And when conquerors arrived from the West, the spirit of India was not bowed by a thousand years of Islamic rule.  Rather the spirit of India is felt by its influence on the art and poetry of various Islamic traditions. The spirit of India emerged even stronger than ever

to resist the 200 year regime of the British Raj.  British scholars determined to convert Hindus into Christians found themselves overwhelmed by the profoundest teachings of the Vedanta. Westerners who approached India began by trying to refute what they felt were primitive superstitions and ended by establishing Yoga centers all over the world.

And while the colonialists were able to divide and rule for some 200 years, the spirit of India in the shape of independence movements from Sri Aurobindo, from Tilak, and Nehru, and the Gandhi movement backed by the blood of patriots resisted peacefully and with spiritual strength the cold materialism of the British machine inventing a new concept – that of passive resistance.

Today 50 years after the independence of India was formally declared on an August afternoon like this one we see that the modern age has brought many challenges and changes – old traditions of music, style and fashion have fallen.  And yet the true spirit of India lives on.

It is the spirit of the truthseeker who is not satisfied with the superficial lies, and who says with Caitanya Mahaprabhu, "go deeper." It is this spirit which has resisted the hate and racism, the militarism of facsism and the economic desperation of communism. It is this spirit which has auestioned the materialism of the consumer age and returns to the age-old question athato-brahma-jijnasa, what is the self?,  What is her true self-interest?  Self-determination for India also means self-determination for all souls.

In this sense the true spirit of India is not simply a national spirit.  It is universal, since the spirit of India has always sought out the universal value of higher consciousness through its great teachers from Shankara to Chaitanya, it's great writers and its thinkers and poets from Vyasa to Shri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore.

In understanding this point, my own gurudeva Bhaktivedānta Swāmi liked to tell the story of the lame man and the blind man. The West he said is like a big strong man who is blind. India is like a blind man who can't walk, he used to say. The blind man can't see his way. He is blinded by the ignorance of his materialism. India has deep spiritual vision,  but suffers economically. If the strong man who is blind takes the lame man on his shoulders they will be able to do everything.

We see this practically in the fact that the West with all its great material opulence its towering buildings and superhighways is suffering from spiritual malaise. Everywhere people are looking for guidance. Yoga has never been so popular. If the West can take guidance from the spirit of India everywhere they will be greatly benefited. And so it is that we celebrate the Independence of India and its great spirit. Vande Mataram.