the speaking tree - Have Our Gods Really Failed Us?
Harsha V Dehejia
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India is a land intoxicated with religion its people involved with gods and goddesses, 33 million of them where every home has a shrine, every street corner a temple, every family a kula devata, where every important event of one's life is presided by a god, where in every month there is a festival in honour of a deity, where we greet each other on the street with salutations like `Jai Shri Krishna', `Ram-Ram', `RadheRadhe', and so on. It would not be wrong to say that the Hindu civilisation is god-centric, not homo-centric.In the vedic period struck by the forces of nature around us, we spoke of Agni, Vayu, Surya and Marut and performed yajnas to send our spirits soaring upward. In the Upanishads our search turned inward and our watchword was tapas or the discovery of truth through inward contemplation. With the turn of the millennium we crafted cosmic stories or the puranas where we created anthropomorphic gods and thus started our sampradays based on Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, Ganesha and Surya.
Adding flavour to this heady pantheon were semi-gods like Kubera and Kama, celestial beings like the gandharvas and kinnaras. Then we had sages who, gifted with vision, brought the distant truth closer to us. Despite the plethora of godmen our gods remained primal and pristine; we turned to them in awe and veneration and they presided over our lives.
Today , however, we have displaced our gods with godmen, we turn to gurus rather than to gods, pour our heart out to babas and bapus, matas and mas. Our concerns are the alleviation of samsaric pain and suffering, physical and emotional, and not the quest of a higher truth or the search for spi higher truth or the search for spiritual serenity or realisation of ultimate reality. Why have our gods failed us, we ask? Or, have we failed our gods? While the vedic period may have been beset with wars, the post-vedic period was largely peaceful and prosperous. Tradition was defined by Buddha and Mahavira, Bharata and Bhartrhari, Panini and Patanjali, enriching our sense of inner Self. Modern India however is suffering breakdown of traditional values and economic setbacks despair rather than delight, sorrow rather than serenity , uncertainty rather than certitude seem to be the order of the day . Perhaps this has inspired the need to find a guru who can guide and provide hope.
The iconography of our gods are visual metaphors that invite aesthetic analysis. Their varied and beautiful forms call for contemplation to convert rupa or form to arupa or the formless and take us from vritti or churning of the mind to nirodha or stillness. In the 19th and early 20th century our search for truth was mixed with our struggle for national freedom and we had enlightened rishis like Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, Vinobha Bhave as well as leaders like Gandhi. They created ashrams reminiscent of those in the Upanishads.
But the harried and troubled mind today is looking for quick answers and solutions, it wants to find instant solutions to heal its fractured psyche, replace chaos with calm, disorder with order. Godmen and godwomen of today promise just that, some with a hug, others with a mantra, still others with ambiguous practices and we turn to them in droves looking for the genuine master in the midst of all the garishness and cacophony seeking solace. Our gods, though, are still waiting. They have not failed us, but perhaps, we have failed them.
Adding flavour to this heady pantheon were semi-gods like Kubera and Kama, celestial beings like the gandharvas and kinnaras. Then we had sages who, gifted with vision, brought the distant truth closer to us. Despite the plethora of godmen our gods remained primal and pristine; we turned to them in awe and veneration and they presided over our lives.
Today , however, we have displaced our gods with godmen, we turn to gurus rather than to gods, pour our heart out to babas and bapus, matas and mas. Our concerns are the alleviation of samsaric pain and suffering, physical and emotional, and not the quest of a higher truth or the search for spi higher truth or the search for spiritual serenity or realisation of ultimate reality. Why have our gods failed us, we ask? Or, have we failed our gods? While the vedic period may have been beset with wars, the post-vedic period was largely peaceful and prosperous. Tradition was defined by Buddha and Mahavira, Bharata and Bhartrhari, Panini and Patanjali, enriching our sense of inner Self. Modern India however is suffering breakdown of traditional values and economic setbacks despair rather than delight, sorrow rather than serenity , uncertainty rather than certitude seem to be the order of the day . Perhaps this has inspired the need to find a guru who can guide and provide hope.
The iconography of our gods are visual metaphors that invite aesthetic analysis. Their varied and beautiful forms call for contemplation to convert rupa or form to arupa or the formless and take us from vritti or churning of the mind to nirodha or stillness. In the 19th and early 20th century our search for truth was mixed with our struggle for national freedom and we had enlightened rishis like Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, Vinobha Bhave as well as leaders like Gandhi. They created ashrams reminiscent of those in the Upanishads.
But the harried and troubled mind today is looking for quick answers and solutions, it wants to find instant solutions to heal its fractured psyche, replace chaos with calm, disorder with order. Godmen and godwomen of today promise just that, some with a hug, others with a mantra, still others with ambiguous practices and we turn to them in droves looking for the genuine master in the midst of all the garishness and cacophony seeking solace. Our gods, though, are still waiting. They have not failed us, but perhaps, we have failed them.
