Still applicable today - Extracts from Swami Krishnananda's conversation with Dr. P.C. Rao, Judge on the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea, Sri J.S Verma, Retired Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India, Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh* [emphasis added]:
Swamiji: I don't think any trouble will come to the country; it has been existing since centuries, it will exist further, also. It has experienced travails of invasion right from the time of the Greek Alexander onwards; many invaders came here but they could not uproot the country and make it their own.
Justice Verma: Swamiji, personal aggression one can understand, but here the degeneration is from within. The falling of values, I think, in general, at every level and more so at the highest level – so-called highest level. That is what is more troubling.
Swamiji: The answer to this question you will find in a very interesting book written by Sri Aurobindo, Foundations of Indian Culture. Why India is continuing inspite of all these faults that you have pointed out, and why India is not succeeding as it ought to succeed in the comity of nations?
The reason for this, as he has pointed out, very wisely, is the dichotomy created by the human perception of values, between God and the world. No Hindu, no citizen of India can give an answer to the question: in what way is God connected to the world? It also means to say, in what way is an individual connected to the Creator? Let any religious man answer this question. "God is very far away", people will look up as if God is sitting in the skies.
People there are who say that they have renounced the world. What is this 'leaving'? What is the meaning? If you have property, you can abandon it, but do you think the world is your property? What kind of feeling, unnecessarily, 'I have renounced everything'. This is the kind of religion that we are practising. Because duniya is a chhodne layak cheez hai, we have no interest in it, let invaders come and spoil it. We shall reach God, Moksha. What does it matter who tramples over the earth?
Right from the Vedas onwards, throughout the history of India, there was not even one person who could vanquish the Muslim invaders, or encounter the British forces. How did they become so strong? How did India become so poor and so weak? Because the invaders had a real God, whereas the Hindus clung to an unreal God – unreal God, because God is somewhere, far away, But the British God is here, just now. Allah, the very word, binds all Muslims. And the British see their aim in their action. The Hindu's aim is an otherworldly God-realisation, while action is in this world, and there's no connection between God and the world of action. ... Feelings have been instilled into the minds of the Hindus that the world is unreal...
The Hindu military system was not strong, because 'why do you want a military system?' We have our soul inside, it goes to God. This is why India is what it is. It has a soul within and a God above, and the soul continues and is surviving. But it fails in the world. Does it mean that in order to succeed in God we have to fail in the world? No...
The third battle of Panipat took place and the Marathas joined together and were deliberating a day before. There were the Peshwa, Gaekwad, Holkar, and Bhonsle from Poona, Baroda, Indore and Gwalior. Inside they were quarrelling among themselves. And the next day Ahmed Shah Abdali made his attack, he was on the free field and they had to face him. There was internal schism "What do you think you are!" There was no unity among them even one day before the battle. The other side cried "Allah" – and everybody rose up into action. "Allah is in danger, oh!" But among Hindus, who is in danger? Nobody. And Ahmed Shah vanquished the Marathas, and the Maratha empire ceased to exist in its glory, the empire of Shivaji was split in different directions... Two people among us cannot be friends, whereas they have Allah, who brings them together, or there is the British empire as the aim. Whether it is a Middle East man or American man or any mleccha to the Hindus, they had all a unity of purpose.
You must read this book of Sri Aurobindo. His language also is so energising. Even from a literary point of view it is an entertainment. His writings are mighty. Mighty writings, indeed. He was a great brain. And his understanding of Hinduism is surprisingly wonderful. He got to the very root of it. Hindus are clinging to their soul and losing the world as if the soul is somewhere else and the world is outside!
When you protect the soul you have to protect the world also. A great Saint and Sage is also a soldier, as Lord Krishna was. No Sannyasin can equal Lord Krishna in renunciation. No soldier can stand before him. No householder can equal him. No Yogi can compete with him. He is a true Hindu. He brought together all the forces of India and gave us 'Bharat'. The first great integrator of Indian forces was Krishna. Do you call him a householder? Do you call him a Sannyasin? Do you call him a warrior? What do you call him? The Almighty was working through Him. Is the Almighty a Sannyasin? Is God a householder? What do you call him? Such impersonal force incarnated itself through this personality of Krishna and won victory everywhere. His mere presence was a power, people would bow down to him everywhere. Beauty, grandeur, majesty, power, wisdom; everything was combined in Krishna. Can India produce one person like Krishna? Quarrelsome politicians there are; flimsy talks everywhere.
India is now in this condition ... The entire thing is in shambles – this is Indian religion today. There is no education. The great Vedas and the Upanishads cried hoarse – the language of confidence. It is a surprise that such people lived in this country and today we are having shells of people. Why is it like that, such deterioration?
People say "Kali Yuga, Kali Yuga," and all that – there is no use of talking these empty words. There is no use of saying anything. We require today collective action. India should stand together as one person, not as Tamil, Karnataka, Andhra and Punjab and so on. I should say Nehru made a mistake in creating linguistic States.... We require some power to make the country a single integrated force. The whole of India should stand up, not as Tamil Nadu standing, Karnataka standing, etc. No. "India is standing up as one power" – can anyone declare thus? Is there any person in India who can bring together the whole of India as a single force which can face the world?
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Swami Krishnananda Saraswati (25 April 1922 – 23 November 2001)
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