Comparing Sri Aurobindo with Jamison and Brereton: A Few Examples
One of the most profound thinkers and prolific writers of modern India is Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. The latter’s clear insights into various aspects of Indian culture could have served as the foundation for a modern India. For unknown reasons, our intellectuals, academics, and political leaders largely ignored him. His poor view of Western scholarship on the Vedas is clear when he mentions that approaching them with no knowledge of Indian metaphysics amounts to epistemic violence. A profound knowledge of Sanskrit does not help matters. As he always insisted while laying out the principles of the Indian education system, a guru was vital in perpetuating and transmitting knowledge.
To understand Coomaraswamy’s perspectives on European translations of the Vedas, perhaps it would be appropriate to quote verbatim what he wrote in the introduction of his book A New Approach to the Vedas in 1932:
Existing translations of Vedic texts, however etymologically “accurate,” are too often unintelligible or unconvincing, sometimes admittedly unintelligible to the translator himself. Neither the “Sacred Books of the East,” nor for example such translations of the Upanisads as those of R. E. Hume, or those of Mitra, Roer, and Cowell, recently reprinted, even approach the standards set by such works as Thomas Taylor’s version of the Enneads of Plotinus, or Friedlander’s of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed. Translators of the Vedas do not seem to have possessed any previous knowledge of metaphysics, but rather to have gained their first and only notions of ontology from Sanskrit sources. As remarked by Jung…, with reference to the study of the Upanisads under existing conditions, “any true perception of the quite extraordinary depth of those ideas and their amazing psychological accuracy is still but a remote possibility.” It is very evident that for an understanding of the Vedas, a knowledge of Sanskrit, however profound, is insufficient. Indians themselves do not rely upon their knowledge of Sanskrit here, but insist upon the absolute necessity of study at the feet of a guru. That is not possible in the same sense for European students…
…As regards the commentary; here I have simply used the resources of Vedic and Christian scriptures side by side. An extended use of Sumerian, Taoist, Sufi, and Gnostic sources would have been at once possible and illuminating, but would have stretched the discussion beyond reasonable limits. As for the Vedic and Christian sources, each illuminates the other. And that is in itself an important contribution to understanding, for as Whitman expresses it, “These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me. If they are not yours as much as mine, they are nothing, or next to nothing.”
Whatever may be asserted or denied with respect to the “value” of the Vedas, this at least is certain, that their fundamental doctrines are by no means singular.
Interpretation of the Veda: A Rejoinder to an Early Criticism
Sri Aurobindo had his share of criticisms for his interpretation of the Veda. In a letter published in The Hindu (Madras) on August 27, 1914, Sri Aurobindo answers to these criticisms. The article cites Sri Aurobindo as stating, “We must necessarily disregard or discard knowledge that has no trace to previous sources!” Sri Aurobindo writes that this would be a monstrous proposition. The idea was that knowledge only needs a historical explanation if it expresses a developed philosophy and psychology—a different matter.
Sri Aurobindo writes:
If we accept the European idea of an evolving knowledge in humanity, we must find the source of the Brahmavada either in an extraneous origin (such as a previous Dravidian culture, a theory inadmissible, since the so-called Aryans and Dravidians are one homogeneous race) or in a previous development, of which the records have either been lost or are to be found in the Veda itself.
Regarding the Upanishads, SA writes that there is no description of them as a revolt of philosophic minds against the ritualistic materialism of the Vedas. This view would imply that Aurobindo should not regard the earlier Sruti as an inspired scripture or the Upanishads as Vedanta (the end portion of the Vedas). Sri Aurobindo says he would not have troubled himself about the Veda secret. According to European scholars, the Vedic hymns are ritualistic compositions of joyous barbarians. Should this be the case, we could potentially perceive the Upanishads as a “revolution.” Sri Aurobindo disapproves of both the premise and the conclusion. He clearly says that the Upanishads and all later forms are a development from the Vedic religion and were never a revolt against its tenets.
How can the same book contain both ritual hymns and knowledge? According to Aurobindo, reconciliation can only happen when one sees, even in the exterior aspects of the hymns, not ritualistic materialism but symbolic ritualism. Traditions regarded Karmakanda as an indispensable stepping stone to the knowledge of the Atman. He writes, “That was an article of religious faith, no doubt, but it becomes valid for the intellect only if the Karmakanda is so interpreted as to show how its performance assists, prepares, or brings about the higher knowledge.”
Some “later” Vedic hymns, according to European scholars, appear to be non-ritualistic and carry higher ideas. Sri Aurobindo acknowledges the use of separate texts to bolster philosophical doctrines. However, those interpretations prevent the Rigveda as a whole from serving as the foundation of a high spiritual philosophy. Aurobindo claims to have addressed the Veda’s overall interpretation and general character.
In general, there are only two interpretations: Sayana and European. It is these two that are concerning to Sri Aurobindo. The early Vedantins’ methods and results differed entirely from those of Sayana. Aurobindo says that he will explain the reasons in the second and third numbers of “Arya.” The impression one gathers from Sayana is that the “Veda” is not a great Revelation, a book of highest knowledge. Sri Aurobindo scathingly writes:
European scholars received this from Sayana and from which their theories started. They gave a picture of primitive worshippers praying to friendly gods, friendly but of a doubtful temper, gods of fire, rain, wind, dawn, night, earth and sky, for wealth, food, oxen, horses, gold, the slaughter of their enemies, even of their critics, victory in battle, the plunder of the conquered. And if so, how can such hymns be an indispensable preparation for the Brahmavidya? Unless indeed, it is a preparation by contraries, by exhaustion or dedication of the most materialistic and egoistic tendencies.
Sri Aurobindo believes that the hymns are indispensable not because of a mechanical virtue, but because the key experiences symbolized by the ritual are necessary to an integral knowledge and realization of transcendent and immanent Brahman. They are mines of all knowledge and on all the planes of consciousness.
Aurobindo does not claim that this is the first attempt to give an Adhyatmic interpretation of the Veda. He says it is an attempt to give the Veda a psychological sense based on the most modern method of critical research. Its interpretation of Vedic vocables is based on a re-examination of the field of comparative philology. Aurobindo calls for a reconstruction on a new basis, which he hopes will bring us nearer to a true science of language. Aurobindo says:
This I propose to develop in “The Origins of Aryan Speech”. I hope also to lead up to a recovery of the sense of the ancient spiritual conceptions of which old symbol and myth give us the indications and which I believe to have been at one time a common culture covering a great part of the globe with India perhaps, as a centre.
Next, we shall see how Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation differs significantly from that of Jamison and Brereton by considering a few hymns and ideas regarding the gods and sacrifices in the Veda. These would amply demonstrate the underlying thesis that approaching the Veda through a different metaphysics where the presuppositions are different leads to an incommensurability problem.
Agni: Sri Aurobindo
SA describes the most important Agni as having multiple meanings: a burning brightness (when used for fire), a serpentine movement, strength, force, beauty, splendour, pre-eminence, and emotional values too (angry passion on one side; delight, and love on the other). The Vedic deity Agni is the first of the powers issued from the vast Godhead, whose conscious force has created the worlds. Agni is the form and flaming will of this Divinity. As a flaming force of knowledge, Agni descends to build up the worlds. Agni serves as a secret deity within the world, initiating action. Agni, the manifestation of all motivating power in action, presents as strength, beauty, knowledge, glory, and greatness.
He is a Truth-Conscious soul, a seer, a priest, and an infallible immortal worker in man. His goal is to purify everything he touches and lift the soul struggling in nature from darkness to light, suffering to love and joy. No sacrifice is possible without Agni. He is simultaneously the flame on the altar and the priest of the oblation. When man offers his inner and outer activities to the gods of a higher existence and attempts to ascend from mortality into immortality, it is this flame of upward aspiring Force and Will that he must kindle. Agni, the sacrifice leader, protects the great journey against the powers of darkness. Perfectly kindled, Agni expands into the vast light of the Truth, its ultimate home, as it ascends higher.
The Veda speaks of this divine Flame in a series of images, “splendid in poetic colouring, profound in psychological suggestion, and sublime in their mystic intoxication.” SA writes of Agni described by the Rishis as the rapturous priest, the God-Will intoxicated with its own delight, the young sage, the ever-wakeful flame in the house, the beloved guest, the lord in the creature, the divine child, the pure and virgin God, the invincible warrior, the leader on the path, the immortal in mortals, the worker established in man by the gods, the unobstructed in knowledge, the infinite in being, the vast sun of the Truth, the sustainer of the sacrifice, the divine perception, the light, the vision, the firm foundation, and so on.
His birth is from divine parents: Heaven and Earth; Mind and Body; and so on. The Rishis also claim that the Truth is his birthplace and home. Amongst the many descriptions of his birth, Agni’s birth from the fostering Cows, these Mothers of Plenty, is the greatest of his terrestrial births. Fostered by the Cows, he grows to his divine greatness, fills all the planes with his vast and shining limbs, and forms their kingdoms in the soul of man into the image of a divine Truth. Agni seeks no separate ends and claims no primacy over the other gods. He is content to be a worker for mankind and the helpful deities. SA writes, “Disinterested, sleepless, invincible, this divine Will-force works in the world as a universal Soul of power housed in all beings. Agni is the greatest, most powerful, most brilliant, and most impersonal of all the cosmic deities.”
Agni: Jamison and Brereton
For J and B, “Agni” refers to both the name of the second-most-important god after Indra and the noun “fire,” present in all ritual sacrifices. On a regular basis, Agni attends our rituals and receives our offerings. He is also a conduit for sacrifices made to other gods. Often referred to as the “mouth of the gods,” Agni serves as a mediator between celestial recipients and human offerors. Since the smoke and flames serve as a pathway for the gods to reach the sacrifice, Agni becomes a two-way conduit. He is a messenger, an ally, and a mediator for the more distant gods, all while being intimately associated with mankind.
In addition, Agni is both the sun and the fire that warm our homes and sustain our daily existence. J and B write that Agni hymns provide some of the most “inventive descriptions” of the uncontrollably destructive forest fires. One of the goals apparently is to use this destructive force to eliminate the opposition—a “demon-smasher.” The funeral fire, also known as cremation’s “flesh-eating” fire, is one example of this energy.
J and B claim that paradoxically, Agni is hidden in the plants as well as a small deity raised in the seas. This apparently dates back to Apam Napat, the “child of the waters” in Indo-Iranian antiquity. They subtly aim to place the Iranian text prior to the Vedas, upholding the Aryan narrative. According to them, the elaborate Agni birth songs make up a significant part of the Vedic lyrics about sacred fire. Thus, in one of the descriptions, Agni is a helpless newborn who grows up to be stronger than his parents and eats the plants from which he was born.
Agni goes by several names and titles. Tanunapat and Narasarnsa are associated with animal sacrifice; Kravyad is the “flesh-eating Are,” or the fire of the funeral pyre; Matarisvan brings the fire from heaven; and Jatavedas is the fire as an unbroken presence in the ritual. VaiWanara is the fire that becomes the sun, seeing and governing everything like a king. In stark contrast to Indra, the writers state that Agni takes part in relatively few narrative mythologies.
THE SOMA RITUAL: Rig-veda IX.83
The Soma Ritual explanation is a typical example of how Sri Aurobindo stands in stark contrast to Jamison and Brereton in terms of understanding the Vedas. In the actual translations of the individual verses, the first is by Sri Aurobindo and the second by Jamison and Brereton. The individual commentary on the ritual comes next. It is quite evident that materialistic and literal translations completely miss the metaphysical aspects of the Veda. It grossly misses the spiritual significance of the most important text in Indian culture, on which all our knowledge systems rest.
पवित्रंतेविततंब्रह्मणस्पतेप्रभुर्गात्राणिपर्येषिविश्वतः।
अतप्ततनूर्नतदामोअश्नुतेशृतासइद्वहन्तस्तत्समाशत॥१॥
- Wide spread out for thee is the sieve of thy purifying, O Master of the soul; becoming in the creature thou pervadest his members all through. He tastes not that delight who is unripe and whose body has not suffered in the heat of the fire; they alone are able to bear that and enjoy it who have been prepared by the flame.
- The filter is outstretched for you, o lord of the sacred formulation. Advancing, you circle around its limbs on all sides. A raw one, with unheated body, does not attain it [=filter]; only the cooked ones, driving along, have attained it entirely.
तपोष्पवित्रंविततंदिवस्पदेशोचन्तोअस्यतन्तवोव्यस्थिरन्।
अवन्त्यस्यपवीतारमाशवोदिवस्पृष्ठमधितिष्ठन्तिचेतसा॥२॥
- The strainer through which the heat of him is purified is spread out in the seat of Heaven; its threads shine out and stand extended. His swift ecstasies foster the soul that purifies him; he ascends to the high level of Heaven by the conscious heart.
- The filter of the hot one is outstretched to the track of heaven; its blazing threads have been extended. His swift (steeds) aid the Purifier. They mount the back of heaven in their manifestation.
अरुरुचदुषसःपृश्निरग्रियउक्षाबिभर्तिभुवनानिवाजयुः।
मायाविनोममिरेअस्यमाययानृचक्षसःपितरोगर्भमादधुः॥३॥
- This is the supreme dappled Bull that makes the Dawns to shine out, the Male that bears the worlds of the becoming and seeks the plenitude; the Fathers who had the forming knowledge made a form of him by that power of knowledge which is his; strong in vision they set him within as a child to be born.
- The dappled one at the front has made the dawns shine. The ox, seeking the prize, bears the worlds. They were measured out [=created] as masters of artifice by his artifice; the forefathers having their gaze on men set the embryo.
गन्धर्वइत्थापदमस्यरक्षतिपातिदेवानांजनिमान्यद्भुतः।
गृभ्णातिरिपुंनिधयानिधापतिःसुकृत्तमामधुनोभक्षमाशत॥४॥
- As the Gandharva he guards his true seat; as the supreme and wonderful One he keeps the births of the gods; Lord of the inner setting, by the inner setting he seizes the enemy. Those who are utterly perfected in works taste the enjoyment of his honey-sweetness.
- The Gandharva guards his track just so; the infallible one protects the races of the gods. The lord of snares [=filter] grasps the defiler with his snare. Those who best perform (ritual) action have attained the draught of honey.
हविर्हविष्मोमहिसद्मदैव्यंनभोवसानःपरियास्यध्वरम्।
राजापवित्ररथोवाजमारुहःसहस्त्रभृष्टिर्जयसिश्रवोबृहत्॥५॥
- O Thou in whom is the food, thou art that divine food, thou art the vast, the divine home; wearing heaven as a robe thou encompassest the march of the sacrifice. King with the sieve of thy purifying for thy chariot thou ascendest to the plenitude; with thy thousand burning brilliances thou conquerest the vast knowledge.
- You possessor of the oblation, as an oblation yourself you drive around the great heavenly seat, around the ceremonial course, clothing yourself in cloud. As king, having the filter as your chariot, you have mounted the prize. Having a thousand spikes, you win lofty fame.
Sri Aurobindo’s Commentary on the Soma Ritual
SA writes that an essential feature of Vedic hymns is that the many godheads invoked are really one Godhead. This one Godhead, known by many names, comes to humans in the form of many divine personalities. Perplexed Western scholars developed a theory of “henotheism” as an explanation. Thus, despite being polytheists, the Rishis elevated each of the worshipped gods to the status of the only deity. This invention, says SA, was the attempt of an alien mentality to understand the Indian idea of one Divine Existence manifesting in many names and forms.
SA says that the Veda contains the seed of the Vedantic conception of the Supreme Brahman—an unknowable and timeless existence, moving in the movement of the Gods but vanishing from the attempt of the mind to seize it. The human being aspires to the immortality and vast bliss of THAT, which is neither male nor female but a neuter in nature. Any of his names and aspects can help one recognise him. The Rishis hymn Agni as the supreme and universal Deva. As a Son of Force, he becomes Varuna, Mitra, Indra, Soma, Rudra, and Priest of the Sacrifice, ultimately leading to immortality, knowledge, and bliss. Others similarly hymn Indra and Soma.
SA clearly establishes that Soma is the Lord of the Wine of Delight, a symbol of immortality and bliss. Physically, Soma is in the plants, the earth’s growths, and the waters. The external sacrifice is a symbolic act that ultimately serves the purpose of achieving pure Ananda, or Bliss.
It is pressed out by the pressing stone (adri, grāvan), which has a close symbolic connection with the thunderbolt; the formed electric force of Indra, also called adri… Once pressed out as the delight of existence, Soma has to be purified through a strainer (pavitra), and through the strainer he streams in his purity into the wine bowl (camū) in which he is brought to the sacrifice, or he is kept in jars (kalaśa) for Indra’s drinking. Or, sometimes, the symbol of the bowl or the jar is neglected, and Soma is simply described as flowing in a river of delight to the seat of the Gods, to the home of Immortality. That these things are symbols is very clear in most of the hymns.
The human body functions like a jar of Soma-wine, with the strainer resting in “Heaven’s Seat,” Divaspade. This seat appears to be for the mind enlightened by knowledge (cetas). Now, not every human system can hold, sustain, and enjoy the often violent ecstasy of divine delight. The raw earthen vessel, not baked to consistency in the kiln’s fire, cannot hold the Soma-wine; it breaks and spills the precious liquid. Likewise, the physical body of an individual consuming this potent Ananda wine must endure and overcome the intense heats of life, thereby preparing for the enigmatic and intense heats of the Soma.
Soma, Lord of the Ananda, is the true creator who possesses the soul and brings out of it a divine creation. For him the mind and heart, enlightened, have been formed into a purifying instrument; freed from all narrowness and duality, the consciousness in it has been extended widely to receive the full flow of the sense-life and mind-life and turn it into pure delight of the true existence, the divine, the immortal Ananda. As the body of a man becomes full of the touch and exultation of strong wine, so all the physical systems become full of the touch and exultation of this divine Ananda…
This strong and fiery wine has to be purified, and the strainer has been spread out wide to receive it in the seat of heaven, divaspade; its threads or fibres are all of pure light and stand out like rays. Through these fibres, the wine comes streaming. The image refers to the purified mental and emotional consciousness, whose thoughts and emotions are the threads or fibres. After the purifying and filtering effect, these intense and forceful fluids no longer disrupt the mind or harm the body but instead nurture and enhance the purifier’s mind and body.
As the Rishis typically do to all the Vedic gods, Soma is the Supreme Personality, the high and universal Deva. He is the supreme “dappled One,” making the dawns shine as the Bull bears the worlds, seeking plenitude. According to SA, the word pṛśniḥ is for both the Bull, the supreme Male, and the Cow, the female energy. Symbolically, Soma is that first supreme dappled Bull, generator of the world. Soma is the Lord of the hosts of delight and guards the true seat of the Deva at the level of the Ananda; gandharva itthā padam asya rakṣati. He is the Supreme, wonderful (adbhutaḥ), and as the supreme and transcendent protects in those worlds the births of the gods, pāti devānāṁ janimāni adbhutaḥ. The “births of the gods” are manifestations of divine principles in the cosmos, particularly the formation of the godhead in its many forms. In the last verse, the Rishi speaks of Soma as the transcendent guarding the world of the Ananda formed in man against the attacks of the enemies, the powers of division, the powers of undelight (dviṣaḥ, arātīḥ), and false creative knowledge, or Avidya (adevīr māyāḥ).
The Lord of the Ananda, governing their inner nature, protects men against the forces of outer wickedness. Soma is thus the offering, immortality, a Deva, and above all the superconscient Bliss and Truth, bṛhat, from which the wine descends to us. In the sacrificial ascent, the Deva becomes the King of all our activities, master of our divinised nature and its energies, and with the enlightened conscious heart as his chariot, ascends into the infinite and immortal state. SA writes, “Like a sun with a thousand blazing energies, he conquers the vast regions of the inspired truth, the superconscient knowledge; rājā pavitraratho vājam āruhaḥ, sahasrabhṛṣṭir jayasi śravo bṛhat.” SA says that these selected hymns exemplify the real functions of the Vedic gods, the symbolism, the nature of the sacrifice, and finally reveal the Veda’s secret. SA asserts that these ideas are not of the select few, but are the pervading sense and teaching of the Rigveda.
The Soma Ritual By J And B
J and B assert that most of the Rgveda hymns were for the soma ritual. The central rite of this sacrifice was for the soma juice, which was offered to the gods and shared among male participants. The process of creating this juice is then described. A stone would be used to crush the soma plant. After purification or filtering, the extracted juice flowed into a different vessel and mixed with milk. As J and B write, the Rigved describes various methods. In Agnistoma, there are three soma pressings in a single day. In the Atiratra, or “overnight,” there are still three pressings on one day, but the rite continues throughout the night. The priests make the final Atiratra offerings on the morning of the second day.
They then speculate on one of the “perennial problems in Rgvedic and Avestan studies,” which is the identity of the soma plant or its Iranian equivalent, the haoma plant. The effect of soma on humans and gods is described as derived from ^mad, which roughly means “exhilarate” or “elate.” Thus, the soma juice invigorated and heightened their senses. They reject the early speculation that soma juice was an alcoholic drink, as there is no mention of fermentation, and the root word does not imply “intoxication.” They discuss two of the most dominant themes in recent times regarding the nature of the soma plant, mostly quoting European scholarship here. The soma plant was either a stimulant (probably ephedra) or a hallucinogen (Amanita muscaria, the fly agaric mushroom). Some authorities feel that previous attempts to identify the soma/haoma plant had “overvalued the Vedic evidence and undervalued the Iranian.” As a result, the soma plant was Peganum harmala, or mountain rue, which also has psychoactive properties. The poets’ unexpected associations, they argue, best explain themselves as reflections of their hallucinogenic experiences. The authors finally decide that the hallucogenic nature of soma is a difficult issue to resolve.
But J and B find more textual evidence to support the interpretation of the soma juice as a stimulant than as a hallucinogen, since neither the imagery nor the vision of the poets require a hallucinogen to explain them. The authors declare wisely that there is no need to assume the poets experienced the effects of a hallucinogen to explain the bizarre and obscure in these hymns. They make the final conceding remark regarding the soma ritual: “While there is much that remains obscure in the Rgveda, interpreters of the text have been able to make progress by the simple assumption that the hymns do make sense and that the poets did know exactly what they were doing.” (Italics mine)
They write that this well-known hymn faces numerous well-known challenges. They write that the hymn has elicited many different and contradictory interpretations, to which they add their own. They write that the poet’s name also refers to the mystical metaphor of the filter (pavitra). In this hymn, the necessary quality is being cooked rather than raw. The hymn transforms the raw material from the natural plant into a cultural product, both through physical manipulation and verbal accompaniment, even though there is no literal cooking by heat. Verse 2 suggests a cosmic dimension to the “filter” metaphor, likening it to the sun, whose rays traverse the sky like the soma’s footprints on the filter. Verse 1’s “cooking” provides a neat transition to verse 2’s “hot one,” with heat being an obvious characteristic of the sun. They find Verse 3 and the first half of Verse 4 quite enigmatic, given that they are in the middle of the hymn. The “dappled one” and the “ox” refer both to the Sun and to Soma, each of whom is also associated with dawn, and the first half of the verse thus continues the Sun/Soma identification of Verse 2.
They write, “The second half of verse 3 appears to contain one of those paradoxes beloved of Rgvedic bards.” According to their interpretation, the forefathers are the ancestral poet-sacrificers, or their divine prototypes. The forefathers “set” the embryo of Soma or Sun, which in turn, through their magic power, made them into poets. Soma/Sun is both the progenitor of the forefathers in their ritual role; and, as they fulfil their ritual role, their child too. They speculate that the Gandharva’s identity in Verse 4 is a double reference to Soma and the Sun, each guarding tracks of one another.
The second half of Verse 4 returns to the clearer ritual context of a filter that traps the impurities of the soma as the liquid passes over it, and the priests attain the prepared soma. The final verse proclaims the soma as a king, outfitted with cosmic garments and travelling a cosmic course, with the filter, the focus of the hymn, as his chariot. They achieve “lofty fame.” They write that the hymn’s “omphalos” structure is quite pronounced, with many rings. They conclude that “enclosed within these rings are the mysterious and shifting identifications that make the hymn both aggravating and mesmerizing.”
Conclusion Remarks
A purely ritualistic interpretation of the Veda is a limited view, according to Sri Aurobindo. The average person remains unaware of its deeper meaning in such a reading of the Vedas. For the initiated, the Vedas are the path to reach the highest aspirations of immortality and permanent bliss. For at least five thousand years, the remarkable preservation of the Vedic text, down to the precise pronunciation and intonation of each word, must carry some significance. As a culture, the first thing we must do is accord it the respect it deserves, which is perhaps the strongest wall preventing a civilisational collapse in the face of consistent attacks physically and intellectually.
The preservation, protection, and verbal transmission of the text from guru to shishya has been an extraordinary strategy that prevented another civilisational discontinuity that occurs when libraries are burned. Fortunately, dedicated Brahmins have preserved our knowledge in their minds, not in libraries. Sanatana Dharma is a conglomerate of many Vedic and non-Vedic traditions, but the former has guided the culture and formed the basis of harmony and peace in the country by adopting a non-aggressive stance against non-Vedic traditions. According to Balagangadhara, when interacting with each other, the major hallmark of Indian traditions (Vedic and non-Vedic) is an “indifference to the differences.” Syncretism, interactions, and the transfer of ideas all occur when traditions come close to each other, but they never result in the violence typical of interactions when Abrahamic religions come in contact with each other or the pagan traditions. One of the fundamental ways Indian culture dealt with alien religions coming to India was by traditionalising them. Instead of continuing this process, intellectuals are keen to convert our mass of traditions into religions with well-defined and concrete gods, doctrines, books, and temples. The conversion of traditions into religions is causing a surge in intolerance throughout the country. Indian culture, which has the solution for pluralism and has been far better at dealing with multiculturalism for centuries, suddenly finds itself in the dock for “Hindu fundamentalism,” an oxymoron.
The Vedas form the crux of Indian civilisation, and the attempts to preserve and protect them should only be increasing in the days to come. Modernity, Semitic religions that refuse to stop interfering in other traditions, and the values of liberalism and individualism are intensely inimical to the traditional land of India. Tradition does not imply dogmatism. Indian traditions are characterised by flexibility and dynamism, offering solutions for the present and future, particularly in addressing the growing multiculturalism within smaller geographical areas. Thinkers such as Sri Aurobindo, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and Balagangadhara have articulated this clearly.
Fortunately, Indian culture has ably preserved the Vedas. Most of us would not have the time or inclination to spend five or six years to learn one Veda. Therefore, we should defer to the experts when we lack in-depth domain knowledge. However, it is perfectly all right to know about a non-domain area, as we are only humans filled with curiosity. If one is interested in learning about string theory, reading a book by Michio Kaku could be an excellent approach. Similarly, anyone interested in learning about humanity’s greatest scripture should perhaps read Sri Aurobindo’s work, not the output of Indological scholarships. The latter approach bears a resemblance to a creationist’s interpretation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory. There would be only violence and injustice in ample measure.
…Conclusion
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