The Holigrative Approach
V. George Mathew
The Holigrative approach views everything as related. The degree of Stability of the people in a society influences the kind of political administration and government they tend to have, their educational system, their economic system, their religion and so on. Conversely, the political, economic, religious and educational systems influence the Stability of the people as well. Therefore if we want to promote well-being of the people, one method of doing that will be to alter the political, economic, education, religious and other systems in that society.
Human progress has not always been linear. There have been highly Stable societies in the past. Overpopulation and shortage of resources have been the main cause of increase in violence and instability. There would have been Stable societies right from African times where individuals have the freedom to innovate and they share their profits with the community. Overpopulation and depletion of resources would have been the causes making people migrate to other continents. An advanced civilisation evolved in Mesopotamia, the area now called the Middle East. The area had a congenial climate, plenty of natural resources and fertile land. Stable societies emerged in the Middle East. Administration was by a council of elders who were successful in life and contributed to the group welfare. Jews originally did not have a king according to Jewish history. Religion was free of superstition and tended to be monotheistic. Jews to the West, Sumer to the south and Elam to the east of Euphrates and Tigris rivers shared the same culture in the beginning. As the population size increased and more and more migrants arrived from Africa, population density increased. Fights started and the need for kingship arose. Saul was the first king of Jews. Alulim was the first king of Sumer. As fight became more and more frequent, some people of Elam moved east and founded the civilisations of Mehrgarh and still later the Indus Valley civilisation. As these proto-Tamilian (Dravidian) people did not have enemies, they did not have the system of kingship and administration was by council of distinguished elders. Their God was Kadavul (literally “get in” or god within). People of Indus Valley were traders and they travelled far and wide establishing colonies all over. They started the practice of bringing workers from Africa (mainly from Sudan) and these workers came to be called Sudras. They were not slaves, but workers who were free to leave if they did not like the situation. The Sudras continued to worship gods like the Mother Goddess (Amman) and Murukan (Murungu, the hill-top god of Sudan). The availability of work force from Africa made it possible for the Dravidians to develop organised farming on a large scale and utilise their spare time and energies to the development of trade, technology and culture. The culture gradually spread into India and China. The culture thrived, developed and evolved for about 2000 years from around 3500 B.C.
The Dravidians were originally a brown-skinned people as were all those who evolved in the Middle-East. The recent DNA analysis of human remains of Rakhigarhi excavation also shows that Indus valley people were Dravidian. The mental and physical characteristics of the Sudras who were continuously recruited from Sudan were different. The reproduction rate of the Dravidians was smaller than that of the Sudras. There was increased intermixing of the races also. Gradually, the racial composition of the Dravidians themselves changed. The original Dravidians are today called the Vaisya community and they are found all over India. In the north their language and other characteristics have been more influenced by later migrants while in the south their language and cultural characteristics have been less affected.
Human migration after reaching the end of the road at the east-coast in Mongolia near the Pacific Ocean faced a crisis. The reproduction rate was very high and there was nowhere to go. This led to increased fighting and gradually a race of skilled warriors emerged. They started remigrating westwards instilling kingship culture and inducing aggressive violence in people towards the West. The Aryans were such a set of skilled warriors migrating West. They had two sects – those who worshipped the Sun (Ra) and those who worshipped the moon. They emerged from the Steppes in central Asia and they entered Egypt and became the Ramsus (sus is a respectful suffix) lineage. They entered India and came to be known as Kshatriyas (Kasaktriya, originally, after Kasakistan). Ram of Ramayana belongs to the sun-worshipping clan of the Aryan tribe. Rebuilding history from Indian traditions and local history, it appears that the Aryans were not solely responsible for the destruction of the Indus Valley civilisation. In fact it appears that the Aryans came in small numbers, from around 2000 B.C., merging with the local population. Gradually, as their numbers increased, we find kingship arising in the Mahajanapathas (democracies) which were originally administered by the council of competent and distinguished elders (Panchayath).
The Aryan migration moving north-west from central Asia reached southern Poland (originally called Sarmatia) displacing the original Sarmas. The Sarmas in Poland decided to migrate south in search of peace. They settled in the second Sarmatia near Caspian sea and gradually migrated to India. Their migration to India stated from around 1500 B.C. and continued till 6th century A.D. The Kshatriyas had already renamed most of the rivers after their goddess Harahwati which the Sarmas pronounced as Saraswathi. The different references to Sarasathi river in the Rig Veda need not refer to the same river. Some references appear to be to the Ganges the Western portion of which could have been called Harahwathi in those days. Later on the term Arya got generalised. Literally Arya only means high born. The Sarmas (later called Brahmins after continued racial mixing) came to be regarded as Aryan grade 1 as they are originally nordic and from the northern most areas of the earth and Kshatriyas Grade 2 Aryans and Vaisyas as Grade 3 Aryans.
Brahmins form around 3.5 %, Kshatriyas, 5.5 %, Vaisyas 6 %, Sudras 50 % and aboriginals (scheduled castes and tribes) 25 % of the Indian population. As Kshatriyas became more powerful, Kingship became the form of administration. The ability to invade and conquer was the base for political power. Indians gradually came to admire and respect kingship and their values came to be centred on this kind of set-up. Even now many Indians want India to be a super ‘power’, scaring every other country. There was gradual undervaluation of individual initiative, ability to create organised productive undertakings. The policies of nationalisation (which is the government grabbing any successful private initiative and the public sector mentality which is the feeling that the government must do everything) stem from this long tradition of authoritarian rule by kings.
Most of the insights regarding Holigrative practices and organisation in a Stable human society have been derived from a study of Indian society from within India in a historical perspective.
Holigrative Approach to Administration and Politics
Many people by mistake regard the present multi-party system of democracy to be the best or ideal form of governance. Members of a board of administrators should work in perfect harmony; the house should not be divided into members of the ruling party and the opposition. A set of self-less administrators working in harmonious unison itself produces a Stable influence on the nation. A little reflection would reveal that the multi-party form of governance is only a shadow of the older form of kingship rule. A warrior raises an army and defeats the other rivals to become king. He has to hold his position by fighting neighbouring countries. In the multiparty system, a man has to come to the leadership position in a party by hook or crook, fight an election, come to power and has to create war to hold his position. The poor voter has really no option except to vote for one among a few rival parties. Even Socrates was critical of the democracy based on vote. The winner has to oblige his supporters and also make enough money to fight the next election. The image any candidate project is that of a fighter. People who get elected tend to have aggression and violence. They cannot have either the mind-set to understand the problems of a country nor the ability to solve its problems efficiently. Such a system cannot foster world peace or peace within the country. Administration is a highly skilled job and the common man is not at all competent to judge the administrative ability of candidates. Those who have built up successful businesses or industries on the other hand will have the knowhow of building a nation and solve problems relating to environment, economic policies and so on also. Administration is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
When India got independence, Mahatma Gandhi wanted the congress party to be dissolved, because he knew what was coming. That did not happen and power shifted from the hands of the British to the hands of the Indian politician. Communism was a popular idea in the world at that time and India started moving towards a rule where everything is owned by the state and therefore under the control of the politicians. What finally emerged was an authoritarian rule by politicians with a soft external face and the farce of an election.
The ideal system is one where every citizen stands a chance of getting into administrative positions depending on his proven ability or contribution. The total income tax paid during an individual’s lifetime can be a primary qualification. Contributions made in the areas of academics, science, technology and art can be other qualifications to be considered. Selection should not be based on any kind of competition, but purely on the basis of merit. There should be a “selection” commission consisting of experts and not an election commission. There should be clearly written rules for selection of administrators so that there will not be any possibility of bias. Administration should always be by a council. There should not a one-man show as president or prime minister. Of course, in the unlikely event of a war, the council can designate one member to take charge as controller of emergency. Selection should be for a specified period like say 5 years. To ensure continuity, new persons should be selected every year to replace older ones completing their term. The selection process should replace election by vote in all bodies at local level as well as state and national levels. When applied to the world, it can make the process of formation of a world government more easy.
Such a system will make people realise that productive activity is important and that competitive politicking is a national waste of time breeding unhealthy groupism, violence and rivalties. Selection of competent administrators based on proven merit and contribution will reduce divisive violence in society. This will be a modern form of the ancient Indian system of panchayat or administration by distinguished and competent elders which existed in India up to the early Mahajanapatha period. Such a system will not make India a super “power” other nations are afraid of, but will make India a nation that spreads unity and harmony in the world.
Holigrative Approach to Economics and Productivity
Several approaches have been tried all over the world to solve economic problems: capitalism, communism, cooperative system, mixed economy and so on. There is an interaction between the type of government and type of economics. Capitalism in a multi-party democracy will be different from capitalism under a single party authoritarian rule (like in China). The degree of innovation shown, productivity etc. will be different based on the type of governance and type of economics.
Marxian thinking has been of great influence in economics. Marx was right provided we understand that when Marx speaks of capital he is really referring to aggrandised capital and not earned or saved capital. The bourgeois is one with aggrandised or stolen capital. Marx was a Jew (by race) and Germany at that time was under kingship rule by Aryan kings. If Marx did not camouflage his anger against warring Aryans, he would have been beheaded. Marx had to create a laughable theory of value and surplus value to justify his stand on the capital. It is common sense that value depends on the balance between supply and demand. If a man spends the whole of his life-time producing something which is obsolete or cheaply available, and which nobody wants, it has no value (contrary to the Marxian theory of value). Marx was financed and supported by his rich Jewish capitalistic relatives (with earned capital and not aggrandised capital) like Philips and the Jews understood Marxism in the way it was at the back of the mind of Marx. The final goal of Marx was to destroy aggrandising capitalists and establish the old Middle-Eastern society where people were supportive of each other and not violent. Marx found no solution against violence except violence itself. Nearly a century later Jews took the lead in an armed revolution against the aggressive Aryan capitalists and Hitler as a boy saw people of his race been butchered by the Jews. This made him what he became and do what he did. It was a re-assertion of brute force against collectivism. Real efficient collectivism does not imply collectively owning means of production, but creating wealth by efficient individualistic ownership and wealth being shared by everybody equally. Jews played a part in Russian revolution also. In every country where revolutions took place, though non-Aryans were behind the revolution, finally those who came to power in the power struggle were of Aryan breed proving that violence breeds violence and that the final victor in a struggle of violence will be the most violent people. This is most evident in Stalin hunting down and killing Trotsky. Every country after a bloody communist revolution (from Russia up to North Korea) ended-up having most atrocious forms of authoritarian dictatorship which is kingship in disguise. The controversy came to an end by Gorbachev revealing the economic truth in his books Glasnost and Perestroika. Free-market economy is called capitalism under an authoritarian rule while capitalism becomes free market economy in a real democracy. The cooperative movement was started in Britain and extensively experimented upon by China and finally abandoned in favour or free-market economy and individual initiative.
Real freedom is freedom to innovate, own what earns by productive work and save the profits for further investment. There is no real freedom in voting for one among two or three vested interest groups in the form of political parties. India after independence turned against the hard-working entrepreneurs. The real duty of the state must be to protect rightful ownership, not grab under the label of nationalisation what a citizen creates by self-effort. But in independent India the entrepreneur became the enemy of the state. The threat of nationalisation made it easy to collect funds for the next election. The threat of nationalisation discourages any entrepreneur. The inefficient public sector was growing and consequently the economy went from bad to worse. Majority of Indians have considerable Inertia, and they did not realise what was happening. They do not have the notion of efficiency, how best to achieve a result with least cost. They think the nation develops by the government starting new enterprises and employing workers on a permanent basis and people taking pay and pension doing little or no work. The basic question is regarding the difference between an efficient society which is alive and a lethargic inefficient society.
Now it has been internationally accepted that countries which develop fast economically have the policies and practices of privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation. Innovativeness, multiplication of occupational areas and jobs, affluence, etc. are seen in countries following these policies. India soon after independence accepted the very opposite of these three. There were too many restrictive laws preventing personal freedom. Nobody could take their private money outside India, making India virtually a prison house. Even many poor and underdeveloped countries do not restrict personal freedom of citizens to take their personal money or wealth out of the country. Too many laws (now known as the licence raj) made it impossible for an ordinary man to start a business. Income tax at one time (1973-74) was close to 98% (for highest income group) making it impossible for anyone to save and invest. A foreign national or foreign investor could not start a business in India. The most dangerous laws were concerned with restrictions concerning hiring and firing. Countries which developed economically had and still have the hire and fire policy which means the owner or employer has the freedom to dismiss a worker without assigning any reason. An employer in affluent countries also has the freedom to increase or decrease the pay of the employee without assigning any reason. Availability of a more skilled person willing to work for less pay is good enough reason to dismiss an older employee. Indian labour laws exempt domestic help from its purview. That is, you can fire domestic servants in your house if you do not like them, but you cannot fire any employee in your factory or office. In actual fact, fireability is more important in office and factory than home from the point of view of national development. One single troublesome employee can wreck the whole enterprise. The real self-respect of a worker depends on the feeling that he is being retained and given a certain amount of remuneration because he is more worthy than anybody else to hold that job. In India if you start a business you cannot easily close it down also because you have to pay compensation to the employees. In countries where there is hire and fire policy, starting and running an enterprise involves no risk. The entrepreneur is always in command. It is advantageous in every way to start your own enterprise rather than work for somebody else. People start businesses and productive enterprises with ease and soon the country reaches the point of take off of economic development when there are more vacant jobs than available workers. That is when competent workers are able to bargain for more wages depending on their skill and ability at work. In countries where there is no hire and fire policy, there is chaos and indiscipline. Workers unite and demand more and more wages for less and less work and the owner or management is finally forced to close down shop. Everyone wants to be a worker and nobody wants to be an entrepreneur who is at the mercy of workers. Everyone wants to eat, nobody is ready to cook or serve.
India is slowly and gradually changing its economic policies. But the hangover of the past continues because of the sheer inertia of the majority of the people. Politicians do not understand economics. They do not understand why people work, continue working and why they do not work. Those who have managed companies, executed positive work projects understand. Ordinary people do not understand why in some countries there is proliferation of jobs and services while in others the money value keeps falling. In a country like India, where Inertia is a little too high, if you increase pay there will be less work, unless there is the threat of dismissal. People are unhappy when the government sells off a public sector undertaking. People do not understand that when a government owned company which is running at a loss or a small profit, is sold to private entrepreneurs, the government gets not only the money but a percentage of the yearly profit of the private buyer also as tax every year. Real security does not come from job permanence, but from ability to do better work than anybody else and social security systems. If a person wants job security he should start his own business and employ others. The ignorant public thinks that the government is infinitely powerful and that the government can afford to pay enough wages to everybody for doing no work. They do not realise that government’s money comes from taxes paid by successful entrepreneurs. The potential work capacity of the Indian work force is wasted through governmental undertakings. Knowledgeable politicians now realise the importance of hire and fire policy but they are afraid of losing votes in the next election if they introduce these policies. All government jobs should be made contractual for a period not exceeding five years. So long as the administrators are dependent on votes of the ignorant public, the needed privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation cannot take place. When administrators are selected instead of elected, there will be no fight between neighbouring nations and therefore no need for war preparations. The government does not have to start industries or business concerns which run inefficiently to compete with private entrepreneurs. Therefore the government will not need to collect too much tax. Then maximum income tax rate need not exceed 10 %. Then entrepreneurs will have more money to invest and expand services and economic development will be faster.
Planning is very important. Planning does not mean that the government should do everything. Effective planning takes into account the principles of the psychology of why people work and the government has to create the right conditions which elicit work which is through privatisation. The government should protect entrepreneurs from being attacked by mobocratic violence under guise of environmental issues and demands for more concessions for workers.
As societies become more and more affluent and there are strong social security systems, people will be less and less motivated to take responsibilities and start new ventures. Then society will have to take special measures to promote and encourage entrepreneurial behaviour.
Psychological well-being of a person is closely related to his self-respect which in turn depends on the person’s feeling that he is worth the wage he is getting and not hanging on just because he cannot be fired. True happiness comes out of true self-respect.. People of a country can have real self-respect only if there is hire and fire policy both in public sector as well as private sector. Self-respect is holistically related all other components of personality like intelligence. Therefore the Stability (which is the general factor of personality) of the people of a nation is directly linked to the economic policies of that nation. In a country where the economic policies and laws do not engender self-respect, the people will end up slothful and lethargic, full of Inertia.
Laws regarding work affect the way people interact and relate to each other at work. The question is what kind of laws regarding work promotes positive interpersonal relations and greater harmony at work.
Holigrative Approach to Education and Career Development
All educators agree that the primary aim of education is personal growth or character development. But in practice we find varying degrees of importance attached to information, knowledge and skills in different countries depending on the nature of political system and economic policies. There is no doubt that education should impart basic skills of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic and in modern times use of the Computer and Internet. Primary or basic education should also impart skills of self-learning. It should also impart knowledge of how to organise and start a business of one’s own including the legal and other requirements and formalities of doing the same. Above all, primary education should foster self-respect and proper work values in children. Primary education should be over by the time the child attains biological maturity, that is, by age 12.
In modern times, in many countries, large school systems have a corrupting influence on morals of children. Children learn many bad habits like drug use and crime from schools and institutions of higher education. Therefore in many countries methods like home schooling, unschooling, neighbourhood schooling, etc. are becoming popular. Education is shifting to the private sector and the governments need to run institutions only if there is need.
The internet offers many options like online courses and online classrooms. Children are brought together for socialisation and play only on weekends.
Holigrative Approach to education is emphasising personal growth through promoting Stability in children. For this the teachers must be Stable people in the first place and the whole educational system must be so formed as to promote personal growth. Evaluation of children must be primarily based on degree of Stability attained and not the amount of information the child has stored. This is possible only when teachers are Stable people and are capable of rating Stability in children. Evaluation should be based on day to day performance of the child and not solely on the basis of performance in written examinations with set questions and expected answers.
One important question in the areas of child rearing as well as education is the amount of punishment or force that is necessary. A related question is the degree of rote learning or information feeding necessary in education. Is it necessary to keep children in their seats in the classroom for five hours a day and make them listen to the teachers?
The answer is moderation. Highly Stable teachers and parents can probably do away with force or punishment almost entirely. Then learning or personal growth takes place mainly through modelling and sympathetic vibration. Positive reinforcement or reward should be used for shaping behaviour and punishment should be as little as possible. However, negative behaviour should not be ignored and it should be corrected.
Similarly a minimum of information feeding is necessary especially to convey the basics of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic and the Computer. Similarly children should be made to sit quietly for a few minutes depending on their age and how much of silence they can take at a particular age, but not too much.
One basic principle regarding the interaction between Stability and rote learning is that a Stable person, if he wants can subject himself to high amounts of rote learning, but that would tend to decrease his own creativity and Stability. Highly Stable people are aware of the damaging effect of rote learning on their own personality and therfore avoid rote learning. Many highly creative and Stable people as children could not cope with schooling because traditionally there was too much force feeding in schools. Many geniuses were poor achievers at formal education. Rabindranath Tagore could not adjust to schooling. Many geniuses like Einstein were not high performers at formal education because traditional educational systems emphasised rote learning and not ability to innovate or create. The problem was with the educational system and method of evaluation and not with the geniuses themselves.
Apart from the very basics, one should learn only things in which one has an interest. Learning by force (especially learning by heart or by rote memory) what one is not interested in tends to decrease Stability. Teachers primarily should be interested in what they are teaching. Their primary responsibility must be to generate interest in the child for self-learning any subject. The set syllabus must be a bare minimum. Teachers should create their own syllabus and teach only what they are interested in. Similarly students should select and learn only what they are interested in. Education should emphasise creativity and self-expression in children more than rote learning. All children must be trained in the fine arts, with emphasis on creation. Children must be encouraged to create music and poetry, draw and paint, act, dance and so on.
Children should be made aware of the world of work, different possible careers and occupations right from an early age. At the end of schooling by the age of 12, it should possible for children to start work, at least part-time. A child should have a flexible career plan. The child can try different jobs, testing his own suitability for various professions. Part of the time can be spent on further preparations and learning. Learning and personal growth are processes that can continue throughout life, along with work.
One of the primary objectives of work should be personal growth. A man ordinarily spends most of his time at work and therefore the effect the work has on his well-being and personal growth is very important. As society evolves and becomes affluent, it will possible for a person to be working in different areas at the same time. Morning one job and after-noon another. What is now a profession can become a hobby later on and vice-versa. One should not continue in a profession once he develops a feeling of burnout, boredom or satiation. A feeling of challenge is very important. So also is the need to compensate for one’s deficiencies and develop a fuller personality. It should be possible for a person to take the required training and change profession at any age if the change is required for personal growth.
Self-respect is one of the main organising facets of personality. One should feel that one is doing a meaningful job and that one is making a just contribution through work for the money he is taking. Everybody should ultimately try to start some new service or institution of his own, though initially for some time one may work for others to gain experience and learn the know-how. The most important thing to learn in school is self-respect in work i.e., not to hang on to a job if you are not wanted there by the management. One should respect the management’s right to dismiss you if another new worker is willing to do better work than you for lesser pay. Your self-respect depends on your feeling of wantedness by the employer and feeling that you are worthy of the salary you get and that nobody can do better work than you for the remuneration you are taking.
School life is one of the most enjoyable periods of a person’s life and learning what one is interested in is one of the most pleasurable activities. However in countries like India education is turning into a torture and a nightmare. As a result of wrong economic policies, jobs are getting scarce and everybody wants to get a government job. Everyone wants a white collar job and nobody wants to do physical manual work. Since marks are important in securing government jobs, students are under high pressure to learn by heart textbook material and reproduce in written examinations. There is a regular fight between parents and children to study, parents forcing tuitions and private coaching on children round the clock. Those who manage to get a job by hook or crook hold on to it somehow, join collective strikes demanding more and more pay, doing less and less work. There is no accountability and the worst sufferers are those who start something on their own. They exist at the mercy of the workers and politicians are waiting for an opportunity to organise strikes demanding more pay, finally forcing the proprietor to close the undertaking.
A meaningful system of education is possible only if the country has a workable and efficient economic system promoting economic growth and stability. There is a lot of confusion in the minds of people regarding education and personal growth. Many believe that the accumulation of degrees or even merely going to college has a miraculous effect on personal growth. It is true that the discipline involved in systematic study of anything has a positive effect on personality. Right meditation is an even better and more efficient way of altering personality. Accumulation of degrees only tends to make people conceited, self-conscious and egoistic. Similarly many people do not understand the differences between memory, information, knowledge, wisdom and Stability. Stability is not accumulated information, but the very absence of compulsive dependence on information and thought. Many overload and tax their brains with unnecessary information and think that mere factual information is all that matters. Real personal growth is a matter of Stability which is linked to personality traits like self-awareness, self-control, self-respect, self-confidence, self-sufficiency and the like and this has very little to do with memory or accumulation of factual information.
One of the main areas of wastage of national income in India is in the area of education in the public sector. The state should make available primary school education to everybody as everybody may not have access to private schooling. However, higher education should largely be left to the private sector.
Holigrative Approach to Crime and Correction
Absence of administrative or political stability is a cauldron which breeds crime. In countries like India where the government controls a significant amount of public sector undertakings and is in control of all major operations, political parties fight to come to power which gives them access to significant proportions of wealth and influence. Corruption is inevitable wherever the government is in control of productive enterprises. Stability is proportional to the degree to which the government keeps out of productive enterprises and limits its operation to planning, seeing that justice is meted out to the citizens and controls crime. History shows that privatisation is the only solution to the problem of corruption. Poverty breeds crime. Affluence is the result of an efficient economy created by the policies of privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation. Our primary responsibility is to create an efficient system which promotes Stability and discourages crime.
The present legal system and judiciary are the remnants of British rule across most parts of the world. While in most countries including Britain itself, there is a Jury system, in India we have a single judge or a few judges pronouncing judgements because the British administrators thought that one Britisher is competent to pass judgement over Indian disputes.
I think the notion of a single judge or judges is based on an authoritarian British tradition. In ancient India the Panchayats decided what was just. In modern times I think there should be committees consisting of five persons who are experts in law to study the case, cross-question witnesses, interrogate the plaintiff and the accused, go to the spot if necessary, assign experts if necessary to explore facts and finally make a judgement. No verdict should be made by a single person as judge. If the verdict is not satisfactory to anybody, a different committee can look into the case. Fees need be collected only from those found guilty and need not be collected from those who are found not guilty. All lawyers must be part of the legal enforcement system. Private lawyers may assist the plaintiff or the accused, but if any lawyer is found to hide or distort the truth his licence should be cancelled and he himself may be punished for doing so. Verdicts should be mainly in terms of compensating or giving indemnity to the victim, the court collecting money from the guilty and handing it over to the victim. Incarceration or jailing should be for correction, re-education and personal growth till a board of experts certifies that the person has gained enough Stability to be let out.
Holigrative Approach to Religion and Spirituality
India is a land of spirituality. People are highly mixed racially and otherwise. There is a lot of superstition mixed with real spirituality. An understanding of what true spirituality is and a careful analysis tracing the origins of the spiritual core of Indian culture is required to separate the grain from the chaff.
Spirituality is related to question of man’s openness to the Absolute. It involves transcendence of self-processes. That involves dissolution of identification with, attachment to and involvement with the particular limited self, losing the ego (which is self-importance) and dissolution of mind, compulsive mentation and mental processes. In all cultures there would have been people with a high degree of Stability who experience self-transcendence to various degrees and the aboriginal populations of India are no exception. There have been several tribes credited with psi capacities.
The people of Indus valley had their origin in the Middle East which originally had a shared culture around the fertile Iraqui plains known as Mesopotamia. The Hebrew bible uses the term “Yodhevahe” for God which literally means “I am” . This is absolute Consciousness. Yehova or God tells Moses “I am who I am” which again means pure presence or Consciousness beyond space-time. The Dravidians moved East and as they gradually developed the Indus Valley culture. They evolved a way of life which was extremely fruitful and productive in the worldly sense and at the same time extremely spiritual as well. Many observers who studied the Indus culture have commented on their spirituality. Contrary to popular belief, real natural spirituality is a way of life of a community and not a matter of individual effort and gain. Real spirituality is not a set of dogmas or principles found in books. The Indus people were traders. They retained trade contacts with Mesopotamia. Their caravans covered huge distance across land towards the East. They crossed the seas to south India and far beyond to collect as well as sell goods. The long travel, away from home, wide open places and starry skies opened up their minds and their minds got deautomatised. Grown up children took on family responsibilities and after middle age it was time to retire. Retirement meant leaving home, (at first temporarily and later on permanently) and wandering. More men than women took to a wandering life after retirement. Food was available as the community had the practice and custom of giving free food to wanderers. It was not that they were “seeking” anything or expecting anything, but it was part of the way of life to leave home instead of staying at home intruding in the life of the next generation and fighting with son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. The cotton fabrics took only a saffron colour naturally after repeated washing. It was an act of courage to face death willingly once you have fulfilled your duties. The custom of old people leaving home with a bottle of water awaiting death without the trace of fear was practised by people having trade contacts and interactions with the Indus people all the way from Indus valley to China and South India. In this way of life was the core of natural Indian spirituality.
No two persons have the same God concept. The God-concept undergoes progressive mutation as Stability increases. To the Indus valley people God was within. So long as self-processes were strong God was separate. As the separate self disappeared, personal God also disappeared. The need for liberation or moksha itself is the root fear which causes the self to continue to exist. Once you have no death fear, there is no need for liberation of the non-existing self. The very absence of identifications (with the particular limited self, primarily and secondly to the community) and need to save or permanentise the self is real natural spirituality. Real spirituality is instinctual transcendence that is transcending the self-preservation drive.
As the Aryans (originally only Kshatriyas) , who were warriors and basically aggressive people, arrived, they sensed the absence of aggression in the Indus people as the core of their spirituality. Aggression stems from the root fear of which one is non-aware. The Aryans used their own aggressiveness to conquer and establish victory over aggressiveness. They created a formalised religion out of this which they called Jainism. Renunciation of the Indus people got institutionalised as monasticism in Aryans. They extended the practice of non-violence and renunciation to its extreme limits. Yoga was the collection of methods you practise by which you “attain” Moksha or liberation. Santhara was the formalised practice of dying voluntarily by not taking food. Leaving home (Mahaprasthan) in search of “Enlightenment” again became a formal ritual. Buddha introduced the middle path replacing extreme practices by moderation. Jainism and Buddhism spead all over India. Buddhism spread outside India also producing a vast amount of literature as well as monastic orders and missionaries. The Brahmins (original race called Sarmas) who were originally ritualistic (conducting Yajnas and Yagas to propitiate Vedic Gods like Indra), needed the Kshatriyas to fight for them and defend them, Vaisyas to produce goods for them and the Sudras to work for them and therefore they introduced the concept of duty defined by one’s birth. They later intellectualised spirituality and wrote the Upanishads, summarising the principles in the now famous Bhagavat Gita. Ritualism emerged in Jainism and Buddhism and the celebate monks took on priestly responsibilities also and this led to the system becoming corrupt. Sankara in the Eight century A.D. did what Martin Luther did for Christianity in the West. Sankara separated priesthood from Sanyasa (monasticism). Priests could marry and this was his solution for ending corruption in religion.
Contrary to popular belief, spirituality is not getting intellectual answers, outlandish experiences or any kind of glory and power. True spirituality is not mental. It is not wanting any of the above. Meditation for short periods can reveal fear driven compulsivity and can give insight into the root fear which causes compulsive thought, search and problem solving. The flexible concepts of God are helpful in establishing connection through symbolism with the transcendental or absolute. Rigid god concepts may help in alleviating fear, but they may prevent further transcendence.
All over the world more and more people are becoming less dogmatic and more pan-religious. That is, they are not atheists or materialists, but study different religions as well as science and are realising what true spirituality transcending narrow religious affiliations is.
In the original Dravidian culture, every small community or settlement had a large circular structure with the centre marked by a black stone (later Siva linga ?). This was the community meeting place. The elders met here to take administrative decisions. People assembled here to meditate in silence. The sick circumambulated the central stone usually moving in the clockwise direction in groups to get a cure. The circular arrangement was supposed to magnify spiritual and psychic power. As priesthood evolved, the circular arrangement was replaced the rectangular structures. Original Christianity also had circular meeting places which were replaced by the rectangular church when Christianity became dominated by priesthood. I think a lot of experimentation is required to find out the best arrangements for a meaningful spiritual practice both at the individual level as well as community or group level. Perhaps the government or lay associations of people should build religion-free places of meditation or community centres, round in structure where people can come and rest and sit in silence and also jointly attempt to solve problems of the community.
Effecting the Change
Law enactment is one of the main levers of social change. Where people are full of Inertia and ignorance, revel in their sloth and do not want to work, and where people do not know what is really good for them, how will elected representatives pass laws to make people work, which will make the politicians lose votes and also lose power ? The world at present is ruled mostly by elected representatives, monarchs, one party totalitarian governments and the like. Will a monarch or elected representatives of a country rewrite the constitution, abnegate their own personal power, handing over power to those who pay maximum tax? I think ideas have fire and psychokinetic power. Violence is not the answer to violence. There is great power in selfless ideas, thought and intentions. As more and more well-meaning people realise clearly the importance of needed change and come together, sit in circles and discuss possible solutions without self-interest, all over the world, changes will automatically take place.
