Anyways, after the birthday celebrations, we left the ashram to my parents' place by train. Its an overnight journey. I found myself allocated to the middle berth and on the lower berth, I found a long haired, bermuda-t-shirt clad westerner lost in his own world. As soon as he saw me, he turned his head, his attention on the book I was reading- Sri Sharada Devi - The Holy Mother. He smiled and immediately said, 'that's a nice book.'
Why am I quoting this incident? This incident brought back one of my very old questions. Why is it that any person from any part of the world comes to India in search for deeper truths? Why do seekers of the Ultimate Truth think India is the place where there is an answer? This guy is not just touring India. He is certainly come to India for something more because he knows and read about masters like Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sharada Devi.Paramahamsa Nithyananda declares, "India is the spiritual incubator of the world." There is no doubt about it. Several enlightened masters and beings happened in India, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda, Sharada Devi, Ramana Maharshi, Annamalai Swami, Sai Baba, Osho, Ajja, Paramahamsa Nithyananda ... the list goes on and on. There are thousands of enlightened masters and beings sitting in remote corners of India who are not even known to common people.
India is a culmination of the energy of these enlightened masters and it is this energy that strikes a chord with the seekers from the rest of the world. Osho puts it beautifully, "India is not just a geography or history. It is not only a nation, a country, a mere piece of land. It is something more: it is a metaphor, poetry, something invisible but very tangible. It is vibrating with certain energy fields that no other country can claim."
That is India. In terms of materialistic possessions, India may be termed as developing but in spiritual possessions, India is the only developed country. The people of so-called developed countries turn to India when everything external fails to fulfill the deepest inner craving for the Ultimate Truth.
India is a metaphor for the Ultimate Truth; India is a beautiful poetry penned down by the energies of the enlightened masters; India is a colorful painting with strokes of energy made by these masters and India is a culmination of the faith, hope and trust of a billion people on this Ultimate Truth in one way or the other.
2 comments:
Posting a comment on behalf of my friend who asked "Why India? Your post seems to be full of self praise just because you are an Indian"
This question is like asking "Why is the west so advanced materially?" Whether we like it or not, this is the truth. The west has all the latest in the material outer world. The same is true with the east and the inner world.
If we want to give statistics, no where else will you see so many sadhus, monks who have left the house in the quest for the truth, in thirst for God. Whether we like it or not, India has produced a continuous lineage of enlightened masters. It continues to do so.
If we just visit Kumbha Mela, we would know the kind of critical mass that is after the Truth. It is the largest gathering on planet earth as declared by BBC with over 90 million. There are many more in the Himalayas etc who we wouldn't even ever hear of...
Ofcourse although all this research and development of the inner world is done in India, it is for all, for the benefit of mankind at large. There is no copyright :)
scandinavia is said to be the land of skanda/murugan!
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