PSYCHOLOGY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING :: VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY

India a land of wonders… Whatever I speak about my country is less… I love my country. I am so lucky to be born in such a country, where every particle of the soil is enriched with values and morals.

If we look at the history of India, we all know that India was once known as Golden bird. The history keeps repeating again and again. India again proved as Golden bird, people all over the world are practicing the traditions amidst Corona virus pandemic.

 A popular song "Jahan Daal Daal pe Sone Ki Chiriya Karti Hai Basera, Woh Bharat Desh Hai mera, Woh Bharat Desh hai mera” which I hear on every Independence Day and Republic Day, keeps reminding me the values our country has taught to the world.

 The reason for being popular as the Golden bird is that Deities ruled our country. This is the country in the world ruled by God and revealed by God himself. The kingdom of Shri Lakshmi and Shri Narayan, people were rich with knowledge and peace prevailed in India. The atmosphere was very conducive. Gold and Jewels were in abundance and life was full of peace and prosperity. India was rich in every context because there was no shortage of gems and diamonds.

I have also heard about an another story from the history of India, While Mahmud of Ghazni was returning to his capital in Afghanistan, one of his generals asked Mahmud Ghazni about why Indians were not showing any resistance and were fleeing from the battle field without caring about their country, their families, savings and whatever they had. Mahmud of Ghazni reminded his general of a game they played in their childhood. They had eagles as their pets and their favorite past time was to watch their eagles fight. In order to make them fight, they used to throw a sparrow in the sky and before it can fly away, their eagles will chase, kill and eat the bird. Whosoever’s eagle killed the bird, was the winner.

Listening this, his general laughed and told Mahmud of Ghazni that they are still playing the same game in India and the only difference is that they are the eagles and the Indians are the birds. Listening this Mahmud of Ghazni answered, “Yes! We are eagles and they are the birds. But they are the Golden birds!”

This is how India got the name, “The Golden bird- Sone ki Chidiya” as Indians didn’t stand united to face the threats and invaders not only defeated the Indians but also took away the resources. India is a country of diversities. Despite so many diversities, people in India are united and feel proud of their culture and tradition. On the world stage, either through international film festivals or through beauty pageants, India regularly displays its talent and culture. Many rulers came but none could cause any harm to its culture, rather Indians preserved the good values of their cultures. Today when the whole world is facing crisis due to the pandemic, its important for us to stay safe and keep ourselves away from the infection of Corona virus. Its time for us to really prove that we are a “Golden Bird”. Because of few mistakes by few in the past, we cannot forget the values and morals our country teaches us.

Going back to the main content of this blog, I got a personal request from a reader regarding Vedanta Philosophy. I am reading about it since my childhood and so thought to present my ideas to the world through this blog of mine.

The roots of Indian culture and civilization can be traced back to more than 5,000 years ago with an unbroken continuity of traditions, customs and world-renowned schools of philosophy. Amongst the world's oldest, richest and most diverse cultures, India represents an amazing confluence of different creeds, religions, faiths and belief systems, further divided among castes, sects and sub-sects. 

For times immemorial, India has remained a meeting ground between the East and the West, a treasure house of knowledge and wisdom. The Vedic culture and Vedic way of life have struck deep roots in India and are followed by people even today. Apart from the Vedas, other important scriptures composed during Vedic times include the Upanishadas, the shrutis and the smritis. India believes in Sarva dharma samabhava, which means respect for all belief systems. This has allowed not just tolerance towards religions and beliefs, but the freedom to propound one's ideas and philosophies.

The Vedanta philosophy comprises of all the various sects that now exist in India. Vedanta is one of the world’s most ancient spiritual philosophies and one of its broadest, based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India. It is the philosophical foundation of Hinduism; but while Hinduism includes aspects of Indian culture, Vedanta is universal in its application and is equally relevant to all countries, all cultures, and all religious backgrounds.

Vedanta asserts on the oneness of existence, the divinity of the soul, and the harmony of all religions.

If we take a closer look at the word “Vedanta”: “Vedanta” is a combination of two words: “Veda” which means “knowledge” and “anta” which means “the end of” or “the goal of.”

All the Vedantists agree on three points. They believe in God, in the Vedas as revealed, and in cycles. The belief about cycles is as follows: All matter throughout the universe is the outcome of one primal matter called Aakaasha; and all force, whether gravitation, attraction or repulsion, or life, is the outcome of one primal force called Praana. Praana acting on Aakaasha is creating or projecting the universe. At the beginning of a cycle, Aakaasha is motionless, unmanifested. Then Pra ana begins to act, more and more, creating grosser and grosser forms out of Aakaasha — plants, animals, men, stars, and so on.

After an incalculable time, this evolution ceases and involution begins, everything being resolved back through finer and finer forms into the original Aakaasha and Praana, when a new cycle follows. Now there is something beyond Aakaasha and Praana. Both can be resolved into a third thing called Mahat — the Cosmic Mind. This Cosmic Mind does not create Aakaasha and Praana but changes itself into them.

According to Vedanta, God is infinite existence, infinite consciousness, and infinite bliss. The term for this impersonal, transcendent reality is Brahman, the divine ground of being. Yet Vedanta also maintains that God can be personal as well, assuming human form in every age. Most importantly, God dwells within our own hearts as the divine Self or Atman. The Atman is never born nor will it ever die. Neither stained by our failings nor affected by the fluctuations of the body or mind, the Atman is not subject to our grief or despair or disease or ignorance. Pure, perfect, free from limitations, the Atman, Vedanta declares, is one with Brahman. The greatest temple of God lies within the human heart.

Here I would like to add something, which I think people must understand, the important of inner beauty. Outer looks fade away. Beauty is like an air bubble. We must try to increase our inner beauty, since that is what we carry with us as our personality. We should strive to bring smile on someone's face rather than sending them hate by mocking for their outer looks.

Everyone is unique and beautiful. Not everyone could be able to see it. It takes the right person to see the beauty of a person. People should start finding the beauty inside someone's heart rather than pointing at their colour. Mocking someone for their gloomy or bad looks is the most pathetic thing one can do.

No beauty, no money or jewelry passes the gates of heaven. What goes with us is our character which is formed from our inner beauty. One can stay in the hearts of people even after their death if he or she reflects his or her inner beauty all over the world. We live in a world where people are wonderful critics, giving free judgement. People ready to judge others, forget about understanding others. What matters is, how we see ourselves. To be beautiful means to be yourself. You need not be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself first. Nobody is perfect in this world. All have their own flaws. Stop complaining. Flaws make us, a unique and special creation. Inner beauty should be most important part of improving one's self. We must be grateful for what we have. Being born as a human is the greatest achievement. Appreciate everything that brings smile on our face. Stop complaining or demotivating others. Don't strive for looking beautiful externally.

Getting back to our topic, Vedanta asserts that the goal of life is to realize and to manifest our own divinity. This divinity is our real nature, and the realization of it is our birth right. We are moving towards this goal as we grow with knowledge and life experiences. It is inevitable that we will eventually, either in this or in future lives, discover that the greatest truth of our existence is our own divine nature.

Self-actualization is the most important stage of our life. We must understand the reason for our birth. Make your life easier and simpler. We humans are all connected and so one should help the other in the process of self-actualization.

The Vedas are divided mainly into two portions: The Karma-kaanda and the Jnaana-kaanda — the work-portion and the knowledge-portion. To the Karma-kaanda belong the famous hymns and the rituals of Brahmanas. Those books which treat of spiritual matters apart from ceremonials are called Upanishads. The Upanishads belong to the Jnaana-kaanda, or knowledge-portion. It is not that all the Upanishads were composed as a separate portion of the Vedas. Some are interspersed among the rituals, and at least one is in the Samhita, or hymn-portion. Sometimes the term Upanishad is applied to books which are not included in the Vedas — e.g. the Gita, but as a rule it is applied to the philosophical treatises scattered through the Vedas. These treatises have been collected and are called the Vedanta.

The Upanishads are said to be one hundred and eight in number. Their dates cannot be fixed with certainty — only it is certain that they are older than the Buddhistic movement.

Vedanta further affirms that all religions teach the same basic truths about God, the world, and our relationship to one another. All the religions are different ways to reach the same almighty. Thousands of years ago the Rig Veda declared: “Truth is one, sages call it by various names.” The world’s religions offer varying approaches to God, each one true and valid, each religion offering the world a unique and irreplaceable path to God-realization.

According to the Vedanta teachings there are four paths we can follow to achieve the goal of understanding our divine nature.  These paths are known as the Four Yogas. 

Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion. The devotee approaches God through a loving relationship. This path emphasizes practices such as prayer, chanting, and meditation on God as a loving presence in our lives. Mirabai the devotee of God Krishna chose the Bhakti Yoga.

Jnana Yoga is the path of knowledge. In this path the seeker uses reason and discernment to discover the divine nature within by casting off all that is false, or unreal. This practice shows us that the Supreme Reality resides within.

Karma Yoga is the path of selfless work. Those who follow this path do work as an offering to God and expect nothing personal in return. Karma Yoga teaches us to practice detachment and equanimity in our work, and to understand that the results of any actions are beyond our control.

Raja Yoga is the path of meditation. Meditation is an important practice in all the paths as it allows us to experience higher states of consciousness, where we achieve a deeper understanding of our divine nature. Sri Ramakrishna, a modern-day saint and his student Swami Vivekananda, who brought Vedanta to the western world, emphasized the use of a mantra-based meditation technique and symbolic images of the divine.

The Vedas is a storehouse of knowledge from God. It is the greatest body of knowledge known to mankind. The material world goes through changes, but the Vedic knowledge is eternal, so it is always relevant to the world. The Truth about the world does not change. The Truth is always true, no matter what time or state the world is in.

In school, I remember learning about the ancients - the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, Mesopotamia - never once did we hear so much as a squeak about the Vedic culture, the most ancient, advanced, glorious culture to ever grace the planet. Our system neglected to tell us, that at the time when people in Europe carried clubs and lived in caves, or in the middle-ages when people were burned for saying that the sun is in the center- in the Vedic culture they had already described advanced mathematics, the universe and its planets in minute detail.

In today’s world where the values, morals, goodness of man are depleting and eroding, we need to follow Vedanta and footsteps of Swami Vivekananda. Some of the gravest problems that the world is facing today are the environmental problems such as ecological imbalance, climate change, global warming, pollution, etc. Two factors that contribute to environmental crisis are – one, the belief that human beings are separate from and superior to nature, and two, man’s indiscriminate exploitation of nature, unmindful of the consequences of his actions.

According to Vedas, the structure of the world is Nature – oriented. The central theme of Atharva Veda is the fellowship of man and nature. Many verses of Atharva Veda reflect the earnest wish of human beings to live in harmony with nature. The following is the English translation of verses from the Atharva Veda Book XII (Bhumisukta):

Earth, upon which this moving, breathing life exists;
May she bestow on us the finest of her harvests!

Earth, the all-sustaining, treasure-bearing, resting-place;
Golden-breasted Earth, home of all life,
Who bears the sacred fire.
Pleasant be thy hills, O Earth,
Thy snow-clad mountains and thy forests.
On this Earth do I stand,
Unvanquished, unslain, unhurt.
Set me, O Earth, amidst the nourishing strength
That emanates from thy body.
The Earth is my mother, her child am I;
Infinite space is my father,
May he fill us with plenty.
Peaceful, sweet-smelling, gracious Earth.
Whatever I dig from thee, O Earth,
May that have quick growth again,
May we not injure your vitals or your heart.
Full of sweetness are the plants,
And full of sweetness these my words.
And with things that are full of sweetness,
I prosper in a thousand ways.

The existence and welfare of the human society depend upon maintaining a balance with nature. Amidst COVID19 pandemic outbreak in the world, I Srividya Gurugubilly would like to say that, “Every problem in the world has a solution and every solution needs a support”. In today's context we need the support and team work by all individuals to keep all others safe.

Corona virus Precautions by my daughter: