Contrary to what you may have come to believe, philosophies were never the dominant force in India, and we have never come to glorify the psychological faculty and knowledge as the West has. We are not a knowledge-based culture, but an awareness-based culture. And awareness cannot be stored in books. It can only be kept up by human beings. A culture cannot remain aware and alive unless it produces, in every generation, individuals who have awakened from the daze of thought. This society invested itself abundantly in this direction, and ensured that it continuously produced such beings. If you look at history, you can see that what essentially mattered to people here was a live spark of truth and not mere traditions and books.
For example, when effulgent beings like Gautama Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira appeared, many in this country voluntarily converted from their Vedic ways and joined the new sects. The approach of these masters is sometimes referred to as nirgrantha which means non-scriptural. So, basically people kept aside their age-old scriptures and submitted themselves to the effulgence they saw in these masters. Many kings also were influenced by them, and became their disciples, allowing more financial assistance to Viharas (Buddhist centers) and Basadis (Jain centers). Buddhism and Jainism flourished in the subcontinent. However, after a few centuries, Vedic acharyas appeared, and through their brilliance as well as their presence, they won over people. Now too, people had no problem in keeping aside the traditions and the books that they had followed for centuries. Many Kings and kingdoms voluntarily converted back to the Vedic ways, and many Basadis were transformed into temples.
This is only a gist of the dynamic flux that this land has always been in. Such things have been happening all across the subcontinent for thousands of years. What this goes to show is that in this country, people essentially did not care for books and philosophies. What they mainly cared for was a live spark. Whenever people saw that the man is beaming with consciousness, they did not hesitate to give up their identity and tradition. It did not matter to them what the approach of this new teacher was. All that mattered to them was that this man could show them the way, and wake them up.
So, a particular approach, a particular school could gain or lose traction in the society depending upon the potency of its proponents. A spiritual method, after all, is only as effective and alive as its contemporary proponents are. So, it was like a spiritual tournament, if you will, which the culture was informally conducting on a regular basis. In sports, if a particular country wins the world cup, the matter is not closed forever, right? The winning team are champions only for a few years. Someone else may win the cup next time. You need to constantly play well if you have to retain the championship. You can’t afford to just keep gloating over your victory from the bygone past.
Similarly, a particular spiritual method won over people only if that school produced champions in this generation. Otherwise, it did not matter how great a philosophy theirs is, or how great a master they had in the bygone past. People would gradually move away from it when they saw a live spark elsewhere. Unfortunately, due to invasions and oppressions, this dynamic process has discontinued for such a long time that people here have altogether forgotten that such a thing used to happen in India. It is time this comes back once again, and becomes the culture not just of India, but of the world. Living by books and beliefs, and holding onto philosophies that find their greatness solely in the bygone past has done enough damage already.
We have to understand that a spiritual sect or a school, or a culture or a society in general, can remain vibrant, and thereby truly continue, only if it keeps producing flowers. Otherwise, it slowly turns into a mortuary where dead words are preserved. Holding onto it becomes more and more troublesome, because a philosophy by itself cannot ignite and transform a human being. On the contrary, it can aggravate unconsciousness. It can make people arrive at grand slogans and conclusions, and proudly snooze off. It can turn into a belief, a mere identity, a religion.
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