Lect4: Part 3: The Vedas & Culture: Purpose of Life Emphasized with Rituals 0f Festivals Source of Hindu culture =Vedas: Basics of VedasPurpose of Life The culture of a community or nation is based upon the values that its people live and uphold in their lives. In Hindu culture, the Vedas are the “source book”: knowledge for philosophy of culture and values. Theme of entire Vedas is to purify the mind and remove all negativities and cultivate positive virtues. This will lead to real happiness---we dance in joy—real victory in life! Just as expressed during festivals like Navratri, Dusshera, Durga Puja, Diwali, Shivaratri The Purpose of Life Human life is meant for more than just indulging in physical pleasures. Though eating, drinking, and enjoying are a part of life, we cannot say that this is all there is to life. The human (man=manushya) is distinguished from other creatures (animals=pashu) because he possesses an intellect, the faculty of understanding and thinking. The purpose of intellect is to know the “truth” or “essence of things” that are perceived by our senses. In Sanskrit, pashu (animal) is derived from “pashyati iti pashuh”-that which “sees: only externally”, which takes things at face value, giving no thought to what the truth of a thing is. For animal there is no need to look deeper, for an object is generally useful only insofar as it is edible (eg a monkey will use mango to eat and throw away rest, but humans will also think of how to get more for long run and use seeds to have more trees and more mangoes….). The English word “man” however is derived from Sanskrit word “manushya”, from the root meaning “to think.” Manushya suggests that for the human being it is not enough to merely see an object physically, but that he should think about and know the truth behind it. The purpose of human life, therefore, is to know truth behind it or “essence of things” that are perceived by our senses. The purpose of human life, therefore, is to know the truth, and is not for “Bhoga”, or physical enjoyment alone. Knowledge of the Truth gives us real victory in life. And what is this victory? It is the conquering of our own minds, so that we are not perturbed by every little change that takes place in the world around us. This leads to Moksha=liberation of fear of unknown/unseen. This total victory over our minds, leading to happiness/peace is won not by compulsion nor by artificially induced methods that suspend the mind temporarily, but by knowledge and understanding alone. Importance of Rituals And Festivals Not everyone will be of the intellectual type to appreciate everything philosophical. If there is a lecture on religion, many of us will become sleepy and our mind wanders to things we want to Reita Agarwal Page 1 do. Now-a-days IPHONE or ITUNE….is a good escape while we sit in a congregation/puja! Some of us learn knowledge through bhajans, some through stories. Therefore, philosophy or spiritual truth must be demonstrated visually in some ritualistic form for common (average population) people. When spirituality is first introduced to children, they enjoy a dance, or special food or a festival parade and later on begin to question. We always question what we don’t like doing because we are made to do it! But some do ask questions because it intrigues them. Either way, a new journey starts to gain spiritual knowledge when kids/people start asking questions! “What is this dance? Why are we doing this puja? Why are these steps in puja done? What is the meaning of Navaratri?” So the purpose of the concretized ritual in festivals is fulfilled when these questions begin to arise in the children’s mind. Now concrete is starting to form abstract towards “True knowledge”. This was what Vedas were trying to do through their complicated/intellectual written literature. Unfortunately, when children are taken to these festivals or temples and they ask questions, we adults cannot answer them. Yet when the children revolt as teenagers, then we wonder what is wrong with the child. Did we the adults ever ask questions in our minds about religion before we started labeling our children/youth as “terrible/disrespectful……… “. We take pride in the fact that we never used to question anything, but it would have been better if we had asked questions and found out. Why did we not ask questions? It may be out of respect to our elders, but really it was because of our “intellectual inertia”. Inertia (continuous state of rest or motion) can be physical or mental. Physical inertia is not as bad because it is temporary. One has to ultimately do something (eat, drink, clean, rest…) to avoid harm to body from any continuous state (rest/motion). There are also mental or emotional stupors that some people remain in which do affect humans. However, Intellectual inertia is the worst kind, because under its influence people don’t want to think at all. But “manushya” = “think”! Are we being like “pashu” by avoiding thinking? It is said people can live without air for 2 minutes, without water for a few days, without food for few weeks, and without thinking for generations! So logically, I guess we tell ourselves why think when not essential for survival? But don’t forget, the nature of human (manushya) is to think. This mind will either think (negative=selfish way) to be destructive or think positively (greater good) to be productive for growth of a civilization. This intellectual inertia is the inner Mahisura that we don’t want to wakeup from this of ignorance! Spiritual Significance of Navaratri: Emphasize Vedic Purpose of Life Here we will discuss the values of Indian culture as an expression of Vedas in terms of Navaratri festival. Even though Hindus celebrate this festival every year, most have no idea of the significance of Navaratri. Reita Agarwal Page 2 “Ratri” means night and “nava” means nine. At Navratri “nine nights”, the Goddess is worshipped in Her various forms as Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. Though the Goddess is one, She is represented and worshipped in three different aspects. On the first three nights of the festival, Durga is worshipped. Lakshmi is worshipped on the next three nights, and then Saraswati Devi on the last three nights. The following day, the tenth day of the festival, is called Vijayadasami. Viajaya means Victory, the victory over our own minds that can come only when we have worshipped these three:Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. Goddess Durga In puranic story, Durga Devi kills Mahisha-sur (buffalo like) demon. The buffalo stands for tamoguna, the quality of laziness, darkness, ignorance, and inertia. We all have these qualities too. Although we may have a lot of energy and potential inside us, we prefer to do nothing— just like the buffalo loves only to lie in pools of water (video of buffaloes..). Durga Devi’s killing of the Mahisha demon is, symbolically, the destruction of the tamoguna (darkness) within us that is very difficult to destroy. In the Durga Devi Havana (sacrifice), we invoke that divine Power within us to destroy our animalistic tendencies. Goddess Lakshmi In our society, when we think of Lakshmi, we think of only money—counting gold and dollar bills! We find a crowd when we go to Lakshmi temple because everybody likes Lakshmi Puja (worship) because they think She represents material wealth. But what is “real wealth”? Even if we have material wealth but have no self-discipline or self- control, nor values of love kindness, respect, and sincerity, all our material wealth will be lost or destroyed. The real wealth is the inner wealth of “spiritual values” (self-discipline, kindness, sincerity …) that we practice in our lives, by which our minds become “purified” (not selfish but think about greater good). Only when we have these noble values will we be able to preserve our material wealth and make good use of it. Otherwise money itself becomes a problem. In the absence of right values and good qualities, all our money will be wasted. We know for example, if we give money to a drug addict or an alcoholic, he will drink or smoke it away in no time. We also know how Roman Empire slowly fell to what it is today. We also see how a building or a bridge after completion falls when greedy construction team and politicians gain money in their personal pockets and cause harm to a community and slowly that civilization starts slower growth and falls from its status. It is clear, our “wealth of virtues” is our “true Lakshmi”. In Upanishads,-Taittiriya , the rishis first asked to have all noble virtues fully developed, there after Lord please bring wealth to us. Adi-Shankaracharya in “Vivekacudamani”, describes the “sat sampati”, or six forms of wealth Reita Agarwal Page 3 (calmness of mind, self-control, self-withdrawal, forbearance, faith, and single-pointedness), that are to be cultivated to attain wisdom. These virtues are important because our goal is victory over the mind—a victory such that we do not get disturbed by every change that takes place in our lives. Only when our mind is that strong with “sat sampati, then only we can maintain and amplify material wealth for not only individual, but also for global progress. If there is no global productivity, then one will also suffer in the long run (eg canal system in Rajasthan never completed due to selfish behavior of construction team).