Normally, if we lose something we go to the lost and found section and see if we have our things stored. Now, what if we lose our culture…where do we go to find that? Indian culture was based on vedic teachings. The whole structure of the Vedic philosophy is built to that point – bhakti to God. Since there are different types of people with different aspirations, sage Vedvyas wrote the Vedas in such a way that all strata of people gradually evolve to the point where he/she can do bhakti to God. This is how the Indian culture was set up from the time we rise to the time we sleep, from the day we are born to the day we die. Today…everything is just a relic or artifact if you will.
Let us look at history of Vedic culture a bit
The Mughals invaded India somewhere around 1000 AD. They came and spread their faith through persecution and terrorism. They destroyed temples and converted people. Many people within the land of India for fear of the Muslim rule abandoned their culture and system.
Years passed, around 1500 AD, the Europeans came followed by the British around the 1600s. This invasion went on till 1947 AD. During that period, the British successfully broke the backbone of Indian culture by infusing their own western mindset of sense-gratification (in the name of religion and economic benefit). The system of education, eating habits, social customs, etc etc started to evolve based on the British mindset. In other words, the British successfully infiltrated the core values of the Vedic system and started to input their own “advanced” system. They called the Vedic culture primitive. Eating with hands and sleeping on the floor and living simply in a farm was considered primitive. They convinced people cows are meant to be eaten and tractors are to be replaced for oxen. Today we have mass slaughter houses in even in India (land where cows are considered holy). The whole system slowly started to turn upside down. They introduced tea and coffee which was never heard off before. They showed us how to play cricket and we all know what havoc it is causing to youth of today. They introduced tv, radio and the whole industrial system. One may argue what is wrong with modernization…I am not saying it is wrong but the British used these “allurements” to distract people from practicing bhakti unto the Supreme Lord. That was their main purpose, to distract people from practicing pure bhakti and embrace a western style of living so the British can be the boss from the social, economical and religious standpoint.
Slowly going to the temple became a mere ritual and social custom. People saw the deities as mere stones and everything became meaningless. The British in the course of 350 years in India successfully brainwashed five to six generations of vedic culture, propagated the idea that the perverted caste system is a product of vedic culture and successfully created the elitist groups and labor groups. They divided them both and played from both sides, the remnants which we see to this very day. Caste clashes, religious clashes etc etc are due to the efforts started by the British. The Mughals broke the physical fabric (the temples and the surrounding areas)\ the British broke the social and religious fabric. So from 1000 AD up until 1950s, the Vedic culture in the physical, social and religious sense was raped and brutalized. The people following the Vedic system no longer had faith in the system. During this time science and technology was burgeoning in other parts of the world where reality was defined based purely on gross sense perception and hence Vedic teachings became a thing of the past. School systems taught a western system of education completely devoid of spiritual values. A product of innovative science and technology is cable tv and internet. What the mughals and the British could not do in 850 odd years, the cable tv and internet did in 15 short years. Cable Tv and internet has inflamed the sexual culture of the West and today we find people of India struggling hard to ape the western way of life in every form and fashion. The media culture, movies, internet, TV, food habits, social etiquette, sports etc etc is a testimony of that fact. Everything else “Indian” is an artifact.
The bare truth is that the essence of Vedic culture (in the past 1000 odd years) has been successfully erased except for some bits and pieces lying around. What do we learn from a harsh history – if we are not resolute in our purpose, Maya will just pound us to death. It was true 1000 years before and it is still true today. The forefathers who were torch bearers of Vedic philosophy were irresolute in purpose and hence eventually we lost our original purpose. If we are not determined, reality can be a harsh reminder. So Krishna says
vyavasāyātmikā buddhir
ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca
buddhayo 'vyavasāyinām
BG 2.41
Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched
So if we ever want to regain our original purity of consciousness then we have to learn from history and be fixed in practicing bhakti. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu seeing this has made everything so easy for us. Just by chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra, we can be delivered.
It is not too late yet,
If we are sincere in our quest,
Krishna will do the rest.
Hare Krishna.
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