Once after a lecture session for a master’s class at Prashanti Kutiram, one student came and touched my feet. Some of the students there used to pay their respects to the teachers like this, but in this instance, I saw that this student did it in a very specific way, touching one particular spot of just one of my feet. I looked at her with a question mark on my face. She was a follower of Paramahamsa Yogananda, and she told me what he had explained about it. It seems when one develops a certain potency because of spiritual sadhana, the reverbs of that are exuded more pronouncedly by a particular spot in the feet, and others can receive it by doing namaskar in a specific way.
However, I had myself not felt anything special in my feet, let alone a particular spot in the feet. I just smiled and went away. I neither dismissed what she said, nor concluded it as knowledge (to tell it to others as a great piece of ‘spiritual information’). My feet may not have been potent, but my intellect was potent enough not to have a ‘quick fall’ into conclusions. It had the integrity to remain in ‘?’.
After a couple of years, while I was at Isha, as I was practicing Surya Kriya one day, during a specific step, one spot in one of the feet buzzed. I opened my eyes and looked, thinking there are flies or ants there. There was nothing. This happened several times, and after a few days it occurred to me, “My foot! This is the same spot that the student had told me about.”
So, this Indian custom of touching the feet of elders and teachers is not just an emotional expression. Emotions are also definitely involved, but it has a more existential basis to it. Now this is just a small example I am giving to make a point. The plethora of traditions and practices inculcated into the Indian culture is not just about symbolism, aesthetics and emotions, but it has an energy basis to it. They were all designed to impact and facilitate our pranamaya kosha, or the energy body. Every aspect of the culture was consciously crafted keeping this subtle physical reality of ourselves in mind.
The way we sit, the way we greet each other, the direction in which we lie down to sleep, the substances that are applied on the body, where they are applied, wearing metal ornaments on specific parts of the body, fasting on certain days, lighting of lamps, mantras that are chanted, times of the day considered significant (such as twilight hours), special days of the year considered significant (such as Mahashivaratri), the birth rituals, the death rituals, and all other rituals in between, and of course, the temples, their construction, the deities, the substances that we use in temples, the processes performed in the temples, and so on and so on – everything has something to do with facilitating your energies. If we do the necessary work upon ourselves and become sensitive to our energy system, we will naturally begin to see this for ourselves. It is not that I have personally experienced the significance of all the things that I listed above. But I have seen enough to invoke some trust on this whole thing. There is enough sensitivity now to see some of these things experientially, and thereby to know that there is indeed a legitimate basis to all this.
So, we need to understand that what we refer to as ‘Hindu’ culture was designed and developed not with “Our tradition, our beliefs, our identity, our pride” kind of baseless attitude. We are not a ‘mental’ culture. We are (or at least were) rooted in Life, and not in whims and philosophies. We are not supposed to be talking “That is your tradition, this is our tradition, we will respect each other’s tradition” kind of evasive language. Such language comes only when we apologetically admit that what we are doing is whimsical/symbolical without any real basis to it. This is like saying, “You are doing something stupid. I am doing something stupid. Let us respect each other’s stupidity.” With this kind of reactive attitude, we will become part of the very unconsciousness that we are trying to combat. What we should be talking is a responsive and affirmative language: “This is not a belief or a tradition, nor is it mere symbolism. But this is how life happens.” We should be clear that this culture is not just another set of lovely customs, but is an elaborate system that is rooted in Life, and therefore, its relevance is not social or psychological, but existential and eternal (and that is what ‘Sanatana’ means). It is designed for human blossoming, and if employed, it works for all human beings the same way.
But mere information dissemination is not the solution to make this happen. Just talking and talking will not help. As a society, we need to come together and invest ourselves sufficiently in this direction to make sure that a certain portion of the population is dedicated to spiritual sadhana, and that they have the subtler aspects of life in their direct experience. Only then the culture will be kept alive (and also, some of the baseless traditions that may have crept in can be filtered out).
Today, people tend to focus too much on scriptural knowledge, and tend to think that scriptures is the defining factor of our culture. Of course, the scriptures can help in addressing our intellect and emotions to some extent, and inspire us. But that is not the defining aspect of our culture. If you consider the overall picture, you will see that what has percolated into our everyday life, and every corner of this land, is not scriptures, but tools and practices that have something to do with Prana. Therefore, if we have to keep this culture alive, we need not just scholars, but yogis for who this subtle dimension of reality is experiential. If there are enough people demonstrating the efficacy of the cultural practices, if sufficient collective trust builds around it (which will be further reinforced by objective evidences in due course), people around the globe will not have any problem in imbibing these practices as part of their life. Just as Asana and Pranayama were adopted by the whole world, other aspects of our culture will also be adopted around the globe. After all, all humans want wellbeing for themselves and their family.
What we call as ‘Hindu’ is not merely an identity deriving its pride from the past. If we wake up to it and offer it to the world properly, it is the future of humanity.
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