I had a rather interesting chat with my friends yesterday night. We touched topics ranging from how the stars rule one's life to conceptualizing the exsistence of the Almighty. Somewhere in between we were musing about the culture and traditions that India stands for.
All of us had different viewpoints. What is culture? What is tradition? We could not arrive at one conclusive answer to both these questions. Can culture be intepreted as something that has been handed from generation to generation? Can we say culture exists in the way we practise the art of living? Maybe it is different for every individual and the way he/she perceives it. Yet, similar to the mysteries of the universe, there were more questions than answers.
I argued that culture is, in short, "Be good, Do good". What our ancestors believed need not be applicable to us. As long as we remain true to the inner voice, we exhibit a cultured living. To me culture can be seen in the way a child respects his parents. To me culture is a teenager not influenced by alcohol/cigarettes. Having said that, I know good friends who drink and smoke regularly but still carry out the duties of a son respectfully. Is my opinion on culture incorrect then?
Outward appearances and westernization may have hit the common man in India today. We hear about rape and illicit sex becoming the order of the day in our country. Would the great gods and sages of the past forseen this behaviour when they defined culture? Again, more questions than answers!
One longs to be in the arms of comfort when he is deprived of it. I want to undertake the quest for these answers when I am homeward bound. How much will I be able to satisfy my thirst remains to be seen. Noone can take away your identity but I believe you can surely shape it if you know what you seek and desire. Self discovery is, quite similar to spiritual discovery. Yet, I have experience of neither to quantify it.
A friendly chat inspired this post. Will an eager desire be able to identify it?
All of us had different viewpoints. What is culture? What is tradition? We could not arrive at one conclusive answer to both these questions. Can culture be intepreted as something that has been handed from generation to generation? Can we say culture exists in the way we practise the art of living? Maybe it is different for every individual and the way he/she perceives it. Yet, similar to the mysteries of the universe, there were more questions than answers.
I argued that culture is, in short, "Be good, Do good". What our ancestors believed need not be applicable to us. As long as we remain true to the inner voice, we exhibit a cultured living. To me culture can be seen in the way a child respects his parents. To me culture is a teenager not influenced by alcohol/cigarettes. Having said that, I know good friends who drink and smoke regularly but still carry out the duties of a son respectfully. Is my opinion on culture incorrect then?
Outward appearances and westernization may have hit the common man in India today. We hear about rape and illicit sex becoming the order of the day in our country. Would the great gods and sages of the past forseen this behaviour when they defined culture? Again, more questions than answers!
One longs to be in the arms of comfort when he is deprived of it. I want to undertake the quest for these answers when I am homeward bound. How much will I be able to satisfy my thirst remains to be seen. Noone can take away your identity but I believe you can surely shape it if you know what you seek and desire. Self discovery is, quite similar to spiritual discovery. Yet, I have experience of neither to quantify it.
A friendly chat inspired this post. Will an eager desire be able to identify it?
1 comment:
Hey Sidharth,
Good one. Here are my views about the same.
Culture in my opinion is what we call "Dharma" or "righteousness".
The Santana dharma is the backbone of Hindu culture with primary aim of self realization. [Self realization is not merely god consciousness but also righteous living. God consciousness is a path for the same] This back bone is eternal and never changes. However, this so called "culture" that we often talk about, or "karma"- the prescribed duties, change with time.
Did the sages predict this? Ofcourse yes. That is why they had something called "Yuga Dharma".
So in short, the objective of our culture remians the same though its external appearences keep changing. The rishis have defined paths/process based on yuga or time anticipating the social structure.
To me, much of this change in our culture is because our generations are blindly looking at the outward face of the dharma with going beyond to understand its purpose. That why we see a degradation of culture, if you think it is happening so.
I wonder if i made any sense.
Ganesh.H
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