Aim of Life

 

Traditionally indians considered four aims.

One, to attain atma-jnana, realise brahma.
Person involved in such pursuit was brahmana.
Example – Adi Sankaracharya, Ramana Maharshi

Two, to uphold dharma, righteousness in society.
Person involved in such pursuit was kshatriya.
Example – Sri Rama, Shivaji

Three, to produce things, food, objects of utility.
Person having such aim was vyshya.
Example- All those people who made sure that India’s share in world GDP was always greater than 25% till around 1750 when britishers started looting india.The people who produced the Iron Pillar at Mehrauli that has withstood weather without rusting, without help of paint, for millenniums.

Four, to emulate role models. To live under guidance of respected and wise people.
Person having such aim was sudra.
Example- All those people who helped the vyshyas build the Iron pillar at Mehrauli. Those who helped produce materials. Those who fought alongside the kshatriyas to uphold dharma. Those who gave alms to brahmanas.

The above four aims were pursued to actualise karma. nishkama karma.
Actions without seeking to enjoy results thereof.
Such actions sublimated karma, sustained rta in the world.

There is a fifith aim – self-aggrandizement.
To indulge, ‘enjoy’ life. Motivation here is self-interest and self-gratification. Me and mine takes centrestage.
My life, my body, my looks, my wife, my children, my relations, my friends, my car, my bungalows, my achievements, my degrees, my name, my fame, my money, my empire, my needs, my philosophy, my philanthropy, my broad-mindedness, my Power, my God.
Center of the universe is me and what is mine. Everyting else assumes importance in relation with me.

So if the Dodo bird or the whales do not contribute in any way to his immediate needs, they might as well not exist. If the meat of chicken or goat gives sensual pleasure to him, their life purpose is to satisfy his palate. If the Africans can be subjugated and made to slave for him, that is as per the divine dispensations of his God. If the Native Americans lived on bounteous land, they should give it all up for him. This is the mindset.

A person with such aims was mleccha.

Example- The british and other european imperialists. All those indians who collaborated with britishers to administer (loot) india during brutish raj.

Virtually every west-originated thought and attitude is pervaded by this motivation. Including their so-called ‘spirituality’, ‘religion’ and even ‘science’.

Traditionally mleccha pursuits were shunned by indian society because it brought down dharma.

 

 

Postscript

At certain point in time, some mlecchas, persecuted in their lands, who arrived as refugees, were given a place in indian society.

Many of them were industrious and prospered in commercial activities. Further contacts with such people, their involvement in society fostered perhaps, by certain kings under commercial considerations, possibly changed orientation of society. Alliances with Greeks, sometimes even of marital nature, entered into by some kings may have accelerated this process.

Such a society which had left its moorings in dharma, yet had not completely embraced the self-serving mleccha attitude could not give a unified and appropriate response to invading hordes of marauders such as Khilji, Ghazni, Ghori, Babar etc.
Under the influence of resulting mleccha administration of the country for centuries, indian society has acquired many mleccha attitudes, though the core perhaps still remains intact.

 

—You may like to read this post also – What is your aim in Life ? —

Ancient Indian culture

 There is a distinct calculated attack on ancient Indian culture.

Well, that has been happening for more than 1000 years now starting with the early Muslim invaders. But the British made a nuanced attack by creating an education system that produces mindless idiots brainwashed to look at their own culture with disdain.

The products of such an education system, notaby among the non-technical streams such as history, arts, journalism, law, social sciences, humanities and administration are very useful tools in the hands of those who want to destroy the indian culture.

The British also identified all the ills prevalent in the country an classified them as ‘hindu religion’.

So now a lot of ‘educated’ people consider that practices, developed in certain localities which were under muslim rule, such as sati, covering of face by women, female infanticide, child marriage etc., as sanctioned by this religion and thus feel revolted and guilty about their own religion.

It is the vocal lot among these people who consider it their duty to wean away their countrymen from this destructive religion and culture. The non-vocals feel guilty and try to forget their confusions through cricket, TV, films and money making.

The british also spread the propaganda that ancient Indian culture is all about superstitions, idol worship and primitive rituals, with the result that not even 0.001 percent of the present Indians have considered it necessary or advisable to read and understand even the basic texts such as Vedas and Upanishads.

The language Sanskrit which could have conveyed the meaning of these scriptures to Indians has been removed from the society first by the british and later by the offsprings of their propaganda education system.

An example of how Indian culture is demeaned by chritian propaganda is given here- http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0070/0070_01.asp

Indians need to understand that ancient Indian scriptures are their own and not of any religion. Because those ancient scriptures do not mention any religion.

Indians need to understand that the so-called ‘hindu religion’ is a creation of the british who made sure to identify and classify all the ills prevalent in society as having been sanctioned by that religion and assigned it as ancient Indian religion; whereas actual fact is that such a word is not found in our ancient scriptures.

We who are born in India are Indians and by consequence all ancient scriptures of India are our own.
Only when we acknowedge this fact are we able to benefit from the wisdom of our scriptures; and they are really full of wisdom.

So long as we in our mind consider ourselves and our fellow Indians as christian, muslim, sikh, buddhist, hindu or dalit, brahmin, and so on, and assign some historical personalities and texts as ours and theirs, ancient Indian culture will disappear and with it India will disappear.

There is a false thinking among some of us that ancient Indian civilisation has been around for some 10,000 years and will continue to withstand all attacks and survive for another 10,000 years.

When the river Saraswati that was the cradle of ancient Indian civilisation dried up, the people moved on to other more hospitable areas but they took their spiritual wisdom with them and passed it on to subsequent generations in the form of Vedas, Upanishads etc.
Unfortunately, Indians now living in India are turning away from this almost infinite treasure trove of wisdom.

Unless we Indians appreciate our scriptures and understand the wisdom they contain, we as human beings will not fulfill ourselves spiritually. Moreover, we will deprive our future generations of this immense wealth of wisdom. And that will be the end of the ancient Indian civilisation.

It is my conclusion that there was no ‘hindu’ among the people of Saraswati river civilisation, if there was, it would have been mentioned in the texts they created.
This land we call India was their home as it is our home now. And therefore, we Indians, regardless of the religious or political beliefs that we may hold, are really the civilisational succesors of those ancients and thereby, their inheritors.

It is thus our duty as Indians to appreciate the spiritual wealth of our inheritance, respect it for its infinite worth and discover unity among ouselves by thus identifying ouselves with this land we call India.

————This post is based on comments posted elsewhere ———— Thank you for reading