“India’s Soul Was Never Enslaved”

 

“India’s Soul Was Never Enslaved”

— Mahatma Anand Swami

It is a fact that the materialism of the Western world has led many Indians astray. The terrible and devastating war described in the Mahābhārata, some five thousand years ago, brought about a great decline in India — so great that the country had to remain under foreign domination for a thousand years. Yet although India was made a slave in the outward sense, its soul never accepted servitude. The reason for this was its Vedic education, the austerities of its ancestors, and even during those centuries the spiritual strength of the ascetics, yogīs, and Gayatri-knowers who dwelt in the caves of the Himalaya. This spiritual vitality never let the soul of India fall, because the ancestors of Indians had tasted all four aims of human life — dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa — and they well understood that bodies come and go, but the soul neither dies nor weakens nor can it be subjugated. This unshakable truth made ancient Indians masters of worldly splendour and also entitled them to attain spiritual bliss.

👉 We had complete geographical knowledge

Our history shows that the Aryans had acquired every kind of geographical knowledge. Their science had advanced greatly. They travelled to other worlds and regions and conversed with other peoples. Through Ayurveda they possessed knowledge of the seventy-two crore, seventy-two lakh, ten thousand, two hundred and one nāḍīs of the human body. Maharshi Dayānand once related in a lecture at Poona that he met an English doctor who assumed ancient Aryans had no surgical instruments. Dayānand showed him the chapter on the eye from Suśruta — which describes very fine instruments — and the doctor realized how skilled the Aryans were in medicine and surgical tools.

The Aryas were proficient in mathematics, astronomy, and the fine arts. There existed iron craft and aerial craft that traversed the sky. All material components of a high civilization were present. The difference between then and now, however, was that the ancient world’s material progress, scientific inventions, and wealth were not pursued for mere bodily pleasure; they were used for self-improvement, sacrifices (yajña), charity, and the uplift of humanity — in other words, for paramārtha (higher purpose), not for self-interest.

👉 Now only the body remains

Today, material progress, inventions, and wealth are used almost solely for selfish bodily pleasures. The modern world lacks vision beyond the body and the visible world. Ancient Aryans perceived beyond the visible: they saw the subtle body within the gross body, and beyond that the extremely subtle and powerful soul, with their divine vision. Beyond the soul they also directly perceived the supreme power of the Ultimate Reality (the Lord), by whose impulse countless suns, billions of stars, and innumerable worlds move in perfect order. The subtle worlds were as real to them as the gross world, and through states of samādhi and meditation they had directly seen that the visible universe exists for the welfare of the individual soul. Hence they were not madly obsessed with material things as countries like America and Russia (in modern times) often are. Material things are means only; now they are treated as ends.

👉 Earn wealth — but how?

Wealth itself is not bad; but the way it is earned and spent today has made it a cause of suffering, misfortune, disease, and death. One must not renounce earning; the Vedas permit wealth acquisition.

In the third mantra of the first sūkta of the first maṇḍala of the Ṛgveda the Supreme directs:

“Acquire wealth with Agni (in the presence of the divine light), day by day sustaining, glorious, and foremost among the brave.”

— i.e., one should acquire wealth remembering the Lord, so that it nourishes and brings fame and noble offspring. The Aryas earned wealth guided by this injunction; then the Lord’s grace remained with them — they prospered, received fame and valorous sons, and all splendors followed them. Wealth should be earned and then distributed. The Vedas plainly command:

“Collect by the hundreds of hands; distribute by the thousands.” (Atharva 3.24.5)

— For those who earn and give, immortality is attained. The Ṛgveda itself says:

“Givers attain immortal status.” (Ṛgveda 1.125.6)

At the same time the earners are warned: “Do not covet another’s wealth.” (Yajur 40.1) — do not be greedy; wealth ultimately belongs to none. Manu therefore lays down a principle:

“Of all purities, the purity of earning is considered supreme: he whose means are pure is pure; mere clay and water are not pure. When greed exceeds bounds, earning and wealth become impure.”

— In other words, the purity of one’s income is the highest purity; if greed oversteps its limits, wealth becomes defiled. A river benefits only within its banks; when it overflows, it destroys villages and fields. Likewise, limited, bounded greed in earning may be acceptable, but when greed overflows — as it has in our age — it becomes catastrophically destructive.

👉 What is the limit when earning wealth?

The reply given is:

“Without causing suffering to others, without oppressing, without humiliating the wicked, without forsaking the path of the good — whatever little comes by such means, that is indeed much.”

— In short: acquire wealth without causing harm, without deceit, bribery, theft, or coercion; remain humble before the wicked, keep to the path of the virtuous. What little is honestly gained in this way is abundant.

👉 Do not sell your character for wealth

Observing the present state, one may say such counsel may seem impractical. Many claim that today it is difficult to proceed even a few steps without deceit or bribery. That is partly true: circumstances have deteriorated, ideas are shaken, morality has lost value, and wealth dominates all. For wealth, enslavement can be bought, nations sold, and even the chastity of women appears on sale. Yet no noble lady of a good family would be tempted by glittering jewels to become a prostitute; she would rather starve than sell her character for money. The Vedas command:

“Protect your character (vṛtta) with effort; wealth comes and goes. A person ruined by wealth is not truly ruined; but he who falls by losing character is dead.”

— That is, preserve moral conduct; money comes and goes, but loss of conduct is ruin.

The Mahābhārata (Udyoga Parva) states:

“By conduct one becomes an Arya, not by wealth nor by learning.”

— It is conduct that makes one noble, not riches or knowledge.

👉 What are America and Russia doing?

But talk of conduct and wealth applies to those who care for both body and soul. Those who behold only the body and the gross world attach no value to conduct. Like America and Russia, they regard success as simply amassing wealth by any means and then spending it to fuel the destructive fires of war. What are these supposedly civilized nations doing? By supplying money and war material they sweetly dream of expanding their dominance. They amuse themselves by setting nation against nation and human against human, delighting in scenes of slaughter. The reason is that modern people have wholly forgotten the means that earlier ages used to uplift both this world and the next — and so they are sorrowful.

👉 Means to uplift the world and hereafter

What were those means that uplifted both the world and the hereafter? According to the Vedas: knowledge, righteous action, and worship. These three are beautifully described in the Vedas, Brāhmaṇa texts, philosophical systems, Upaniṣads, and ancient histories. The Vedas are the pure source from which the three pure streams of knowledge, action, and devotion flow, and the Gayatri mantra is their essence.

👉 What is knowledge? — Knowledge of God, the individual soul, and nature.

👉 What is action? — Auspicious deeds for the uplift of the soul.

👉 What is worship? — The meeting of the soul with the Supreme.

The Gayatri contains the union of these three; therefore, through the Gayatri the welfare of both world and hereafter is effected.

⭐ Oṃ ⭐

Source: Mahāmantra

Author: Mahatma Anand Swami

Reproduced by Dr. Vivek Arya