The Influence Of India

Dear Reader,

With all that has been going on these past few years, do we not feel that we are in need of not just practical solutions but some enlightened leadership?

From where might we obtain the most beneficial leadership?

A few months ago, I wrote a piece that described the cultural debt that Europe and the western world, in general, owe India, However, I did not go into a discussion about how India influenced the whole of the Far East as well, as far as China and Indonesia. If I had then it is certain that India's past would appear as having been truly magnificent. And it was.

India itself, in fact, once covered far more territory north, west and east of its current domain - far more, even, than the 19th c. map shows below. 

There is an educated tendency to think that if that was so, that is pure history, that time has moved on and other world influences have taken over; that the India of old is pure history. And, that is how it might appear on the surface.

The key matter is that when we form views of what is what in the world, it is mostly based on our daily, local, transactions and, these days, the considerable influence of the usually gossipy media. In fact, there is very little in the media that is able to give a true account of the world except perhaps in small chunks. Much is biased towards western culture, whatever that is.

It is important for a variety of reasons to try to seek the truth. For example, if we really knew the truth of things we might elect a completely different set of politicians!

Take for another example the sad state of the economic migrants who have come to Europe in their masses because they have been told that the pavements here are lined with gold. They were not able to know otherwise; they absorbed just the popular notions that existed in their countries.

It is desirable, for many good reasons, that we individually should look afield a bit more and observe what goes on elsewhere, especially in the Middle East and beyond. Travel helps in that respect, but even then it is how we look at what we see; if we are too imbued with western ways then what we will see and comprehend is through a western filter.

Travellers of the curious kind would need to spend considerable periods of time to come close to finding what is the bigger story away from the safety of our own shores.

In times of yore, the world would be regularly reminded by the visitation and teachings of the wise. They gave a universal perspective on life but usually in a manner to suit the time and place. Today we probably think that we do not appear to have such people at hand to lead a clear path. Or is it because our eyes and ears have been trained to know just about politics, the media and the use of the intellect.

The reality is that - as the writer Aldous Huxley stated - there is such a thing as a Perennial Philosophy, a code of living that is available to all for all time. If we were to learn that code and put it into practise it is certain the world would stop having the problems it is experiencing. What a thought, that people of all persuasions would then be able to comprehend the persuasions of others because their essence is all the same.

It is because of the need for an all-encompassing Perennial Philosophy that over the 19th and 20th centuries two specific and highly-endowed individuals incarnated in India. The first - known as Shirdi Sai Baba - was not well known to the western world until much later. His life's prime purpose was to stimulate an interest in right thinking and spirituality amongst the traditional Hindu and Islamic peoples of India. 

Shirdi Sai Baba was soon followed by perhaps a greater phenomenon named Sathya Sai Baba, one who was more universal in his sphere of operation and who brought great practical solutions in a charitable fashion to many areas of India, and, in more recent years, to many other countries too. These charitable solutions include free medicine and healthcare, education and water supply systems. 

In the education provided by Sai's institutions, students are lovingly taught how to apply their academic learning in a moral way. Sathya Sai Baba stated: "There is no point in acquiring education bereft of character".

Further, Sathya Sai Baba never claimed to be teaching a new religion - his concern was only to improve the spirituality of people of all religions and he attracted many Christians and Muslims to his circle of understanding. These Christians and Muslims all continue their own religion in a more inspired way, having acquired a fresh understanding of the central message of all religions.

Sathya Sai Baba quickly recognised that the attitudes of men were becoming highly destructive. He once said that the human values of  Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi, Prema and Ahimsa (Truth, Right Living, Peace, Love and Harmlessness) are with us right from our birth but we have forgotten them; they have not been put into practise. Sathya Sai Baba has provided much help to man to know himself and apply good human values.

These two individuals of India fully demonstrated to the rest of the world that India is a rich source of wisdom. Their teachings have not been found to have a fault and in those teachings can be found the true means towards unity in the world.

India - though seemingly in a state of sleep - provides true hope for the world. As Sathya Sai Baba once put it (using a steam train as an analogy to describe India's relationship to all other parts of the world):

The train has an engine in the front and many compartments attached to it. You will find coal, fire and driver in the engine only, and not in other compartments. [India] can be compared to the engine. ... The other countries are like different compartments attached to the engine of [India]. Some ‘compartments’ may get disjoined. What is the reason? They do not have [a] proper ‘link’ with the ‘engine'.

Time to put that 'link' right, perhaps. If not, then what?

Thank you for reading this.