The Religion of India
By Shri Siddhartha Krishna

The Culture of India is one of the most ancient cultures in the world that is still alive and verdant today. The foundation stone of this culture was laid down in the dawn of the human civilization by our forefathers that were called "Rishis", i.e. seers, prophets, and mystics. Their world-encompassing spiritual ideals, high morals, lofty character and divine teachings, as expressed in the Vedas, have guided our generations from time immemorial. Even today, these divine teachings teach us to welcome every living being with open arms. Swami Ramatirtha, a great saint and messenger of Indian Culture to the west who impressed great people like the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, said, "I'm India. My arms are open to embrace the entire world. I'm love and love alone". Look carefully at the geographical map of the Indian subcontinent, the real India, you would see a person standing with open arms ready to embrace the entire world, that is our Mother India. Religious tolerance is an inherent property of the Indian Culture. The Great Religious Emperor King Ashoka, who reigned in India in the second century BC, ordered his subjects in his 12th rock edict, "Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought "Let me glorify my own religion," only harms his own religion. Therefore contact between religions is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Ashoka, desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions. Those who are content with their own religion should be told this: Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Ashoka, does not value gifts and honors as much as he values that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions." His rock and pillar edicts are found all over India, including Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most imperial symbols of King Ashoka have become the national symbols of today's modern India, including the Dharma-Chakra or the wheel of Divine-Law seen in the center of the Indian tricolor flag. Here I would also like to mention that the three colors in the flag symbolize self-annihilation for a just and true cause, peace and prosperity. Let me make it clear that this self-annihilation is of the type that we see in the case of Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ, St. Francis, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, where they have not escaped from even death when they were sure that whatever they are doing, in it lies the sole good and benefit of the entire mankind. This is very explicit from their lives. It can also mean the total annihilation of our self, i.e. ego, by submerging it into the will of the Supreme God-"O My Father! Thy will be done".

The basic concept of our culture is "ahimsaa" non-violence or Love. Our religious texts proclaim again and again, "non-violence or Love is the greatest Divine-Law". Love all without any conditions and without any limitations. True love knows no limitations. Indeed, only through such Love, India, amongst all her geological, ethical and cultural diversities, has been able to recognize the Yoga in all the differences, i.e. the Unity in Diversity, the beauty in her diversity. Our culture emphasizes to recognize the unity in all our diversity, the oneness that is penetrated deeply within the seemingly endless diverse objects. This perception of unity in today's world can lead us towards "world-unity". Our culture teaches us to look upon the entire humanity as one single entity, as one single family. Our religious scriptures teach us, "'This is ours and that is other's,' these are the considerations of those who have a small heart. For them, whose heart is wide and open, indeed the whole earth is one single family". Let me make it clear that we do respect geological, cultural or ethical differences, we admire their beauty, but we don't tend to let them create divisions in our minds. That is dangerous! Because that would undermine our basic concepts. One of our saint-poets Surdas said, "All the lands belong to one God; in whose mind there is an obstacle to accept this, only he is prevented". Therefore India is ready to accept all the beautiful ideologies of the world with open arms. There is only one single condition, however, that the ideologies need to conform with the basic concept of our culture, which is non-violence or Love. The prayer that our ancient prophets and mystics used to recite, and we still recite it everyday in the morning, starts with the proclamation "May good and pleasant thoughts come to me from the entire world!". Our culture teaches us to be open to every new idea and to be ready to accept it if it bestows happiness on all and sundry. But anything that is violent or not impelled by universal love is not worth its existence; on the contrary it can be disastrous. We don't believe in fighting external enemies; we believe in fighting internal enemies, viz. ignorance, hatred, anger, violence etc. According to our forefathers, Yoga, indeed very famous in today's world, was meant to assist us in fighting these internal enemies by bestowing great will power and spiritual power upon us. With the aid of such a power we were no more slaves of our animal instincts, but we were able to transform ourselves into a fully rational human being. Indeed, ignorance and hatred etc. are the most disastrous, dangerous and tragic enemies because they directly intrude into our personality and change us from an ideal human being into a bloody beast.

The ultimate goal of every effort, according to the Indian Culture, should be to cultivate and to promote "Friendliness, Compassion, Happiness and Forgiveness" in the words of Lord Patanjali, the father of Yoga. In his words, "only this can lead towards social and individual peace". Our ancient mystics taught us that Friendliness is the essence of Life. When they kneeled in front of that Ultimate Power, they implored, "Bestow power upon me when I'm powerless, so that I may look at all with a friendly eye and all may look upon me with a friendly eye, so that we all may look upon each other with a friendly vision". Even our religious scriptures declare to us very clearly that "God is never pleased with complicated ritualistic worship and a lot of extravagant offerings, He is only pleased with compassion towards all beings, indeed a virtue which cannot be acquired by the wicked". Let me tell you that our culture highly emphasizes on the internal and eternal aspect of religion, which is the same in all religions; rather than the external aspect of ritualism etc. which differs from religion to religion, and highly differs within our religion itself. Love, compassion, non-violence, friendliness, mutual understanding, faith, truthfulness, benevolence; in these consists the internal and eternal aspect of each and every religion. They are the essentials of all religions. We don't care whom you worship, how you worship and in which language you worship; you worship and pray, that is enough for us. Our culture encourages us to pray and worship not for our own self, but for the benefit and peace of the entire world - for "Vishva-kalyaana and Vishva-shaanti". Above all, to love all beings is the greatest worship for us that a person can perform. The prayer for world peace, happiness and prosperity is the greatest prayer in our Religion. The world-famous prayer in the words of our ancient Vedic prophets is, "May all be blissful! May all be free from diseases! May all experience only auspiciousness! May nobody experience pain and sorrow! May there be peace in the entire world! O Lord! The only thing that I beseech thee is total annihilation of pain, distress, sorrow and grief of all beings!"

In practical life, "friendliness and compassion" which are the essence of our culture, translate themselves into serving all those according to our ability who deserve it and are in utmost need of it. To impart knowledge amongst the ignorant is considered one of the greatest services a human can perform. For us to grab the sublimity, it has to be interesting and fun. Each and every step towards enlightenment has to give us happiness and make us cheerful to pursue it. To take a forward step we need to enjoy it. In fact it is the same for all of us. We too are not an exception to this.

Let me tell you that the positive attitude of the Indians towards life has led to the fact that they have a great affection for fine arts, viz. dance, music, painting, sculpture, literature etc. In our culture art is seen as a beautiful path that leads to the ultimate experience of Supreme Bliss, i.e. God. For example, the meditative postures and Mudras of Yoga, that lead to Self-enlightenment, performed in a celestial rhythm and accompanied by divine music, are used as fine expressions of the divine feelings of Love and thus, manifest themselves as Indian Classical Dance.

OM Shantih Shantih Shantih OM
Peace, Peace, May there be peace in the whole world! OM

- Shri Siddhartha Krishna