Indian Culture-salient features,

Challenges & Possibilities

P.L.Dhar
I.I.T Delhi
 What is Culture ?
• Culture means the total accumulation of
material objects, ideas, symbols, beliefs,
sentiments,values and social forms which
are passed on from one generation to
another in any given society
• Unesco Chronicle

Material Mental World View

 Facets of Mental Culture
• Multiple facets : Politics, economics , arts
(music, poetry, painting..), physical
sciences, religion, philosophy, spiritual
science and technology
• Unique Contribution in the field of Spiritual
Science and Technology
– with stability achieved at the material and
social level, their mental life began to
experience deep stirrings and questionings
– Thus emerged so many systems of philosophy
 Concept of Spiritual Culture
• Its ideal in the words of Dr S. Radhakrishnan
– The ideal man of India is not the magnanimous man of
Greece or the valiant knight of medieval Europe, but
the free man of spirit, who attained insight into the
universal source by rigid discipline and practice of
disinterested virtues, who has freed himself from the
prejudices of his time and place. It is India’s pride that
she has clung fast to this ideal and produced in every
generation and in every part of the country, from the
time of the rsis of the Upanisads and Buddha to
Ramakrishna and Gandhi, men who strove successfully
to realize this ideal.
 Concept of Spiritual Culture
• Swami Ranganathananda:
The ultimate reality of man and the universe is spiritual
through and through, that it is one and non-dual, that it can
be realized by man, that this realization is the goal of
human life, and that this goal can be reached through
different paths…..
→ Mother and father give man only a physical birth, but the
teacher gives him the real birth, namely mental and
spiritual birth. That is why every child has a double birth,
genetic and spiritual. That is the meaning of the word
dvija.
 Concept of Spiritual Culture
“The self-existent Lord created the
• Katha Upanisad IV, 1: sense-crgans (including the mind)
with the defect of an out-going
Paranci khani vyatrnat svayambhhuh disposition; therefore (man)
tasmat paranpasyati nantaratman; perceives (things) outside, but not
the Self within. A certain wise
Kascit dhirah pratyagatmanamaiksat man, desirous of immortality,
avrttacaksuh amrtatvamicchan - turned the senses (including the
mind) inward and realized the
inner self.”

By inner penetration, meditation helps man to leave behind the

body, the senses, the ego, and all other non-self elements which,
being nature’s products, are subject to time, and perishable. He thus
realizes the Truth.
 Concept of Spiritual Culture
• This is the only way Monks, for the
purification of beings, for overcoming of
sorrow and lamentation….for the direct
experience of Nibbana: that is the fourfold
establishing of awareness.
• ……observing body within the
body,…observing sensations within the
sensations, ..observing mind within the
mind,….observing mental contents within
mental contents
 Salient Features
• Rationality, non dogmatism :
even as the wise would test gold by burning, cutting, and rubbing
it on a piece of touchstone so are you to accept my words after
examining them and not merely out of regard for me

• Universality, Eternal principles, Sanatan

Dharma
– Impersonal foundation
– you have to strive yourself, the Enlightened One’s only
show the way
– Eschew all evils, cultivate merits,
purify the mind; this is what all Buddhas instruct
 Salient Features
• Sanatan Dharma :The Universal laws
applicable to the subjective world of Man
– matrasparshasto kaunteya shitousha
sukhdukhada; aagama payino anitya…
– dukheshu anudvignamana sukheshu
vigataspraha, viitaraaga bhay krodha…
– na hi verena verani samantidhi kudachana,
averena hi sammanti, esha dhammo sanantano
• Spiritual equality and unity of all
– Each soul is potentially divine….
 Salient Features
• Emancipation is the outcome of perfect
purity of mind; the impurities of mind are
the roots of all evil
• Every human being can work towards
purification of his mind : no distinction of
caste,creed,sex, race, ……..

by birth is not one an outcaste, by birth is not one a brahmin;

by deeds is one an outcaste, by deeds one a brahmin
 Salient Features
• Tolerance and Universal Acceptance
– ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti
– aa no bhadra kratavo yantu vaa..
• The people of Calicut are infidels; consequently I
consider myself in an enemy’s country…YetI admit
that I meet with perfect toleration, and even favour.
(Abdul Razak, envoy from Persia in Vijaynagara
empiire, 15 Century)
• Humanism
– chalat bikhhve caarrikm, bahujan hitaya, bahujan
sukhaya, lokaaya anukampayaa
 Equal respect for all sects

“Truly, if a person extols his own sect and

disparages other sects with a view to glorifying his
sect owing merely to his attachment to it, he injures
his own sect very severely by acting in that way.
Therefore, restraint in regard to speech is
commendable, because people should learn and
respect the fundamentals of one another’s Dharma.”
Ashoka R.E. XII
 Challenges
• Forgetting the Essence of our glorious
tradition resulting in
– embracing crass materialism, dehumanization
– vested political interests
– breakdown of civil administration
– erosion of ethical and moral values
– dogmatism, bigotry, internecine and intra-
religious conflicts, fragmentation of society,
lack of tolerance
 Responding to these ?
• Creating an awareness in the society : Role of
Education System
• Interfaith dialogues
– Thich Nhat Hahn Model
• Reconciliation : handling historical memories
– South African model
• Accepting the fact that non-indigenous faiths also
now belong to India and respecting these as
equally valid paths of spiritual pursuit
Creating an awareness in Society
• The difference between the “outer sheath”
and the “core” teachings of all religions
• Core teachings are Universal Laws of
Nature for the subjective world of Man.
• If one speaks or acts with an evil thought,
sorrow follows him as the wheel follows the hoof of the
draught ox. ;; If one speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows him as the shadow never apart.
• A sound tree can not bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree
bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into fire.
Creating an awareness in Society
• Requite evil with good, and he between whom and you is
enmity, will become your dearest friend
• These core teachings are the real
fundamentals of all religions, and not what
the so-called “fundamentalists” profess.
• A proper dissemination of these ideas could
dispel hatred--a precondition for curing the
“disease” of ‘religious strife’ bedeviling
the world today
• Education in Human Values
 Interfaith Dialogues
• Organizing such dialogues (not discussions)
between different groups in an atmosphere of
empathic listening

• Thich Nhat Hahn

– “When a person spoke, they refrained from using words
of blame, hatred, and condemnation. They spoke in an
atmosphere of trust and respect. Out of these dialogues
the participating Palestinians and Israelis were very
moved to realize that both sides suffer from fear.
 Reconciliation
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
South Africa : sublimation of memories of
past injustices
• recognise all aspects like ethos & code of conduct of the age of
historical event
• refrain from judging past conduct by present standards
• Understand the feeling of hurt of successors of those who
suffered damage & to persuade the successors of injurors to
express regret
• avoid glorifying the acts which caused hurt in the past
• effect reconciliation through mutual give and take in
consonance with present ethos ( HSHT Hyderabad)
 Accepting ‘Others’
• Our tradition emphasizes on Non duality
• Christianity came to India in 52AD
• Islam in 8th Century AD
• Core teachings of all religions are the same
• Emphasize, bring out these commonalties to
promote harmony; respect diversity as law
of nature
 Possibilities
• Science - Spirituality confluence promoting
appreciation of Indian thoughts
• Non duality, Interconnectedness & deep
ecology
• Acceptance of Indian Philosophy of
Healthcare ( Naturopathy, Ayurveda &
other ISM, Yogasanas...)
• Increasing acceptance of Meditation
Techniques