Hinduism & Self Effacement

The people in this world, according to a great thinker, can be divided into two parts.

• The people who divide everything they see into two parts.
• The people who dont do that

Obviously, we know which category the thinker himself falls into. The more profound observation that follows is that it is hard to avoid duality. We are instinctively programmed to divide the world into two parts – me and the world.

In this context, religious seekers in their quest for the absolute truth (which cannot be dual since there cannot be two absolute truths but that is a different topic altogether), have habitually fallen into two categories – the dualists and the non dualists.

Non dualists, epitomized by the great Adi Shankara, had always said that the world is not dual. They allow only for Brahman and nothing else but Brahman to exist in this world. Individuals are seen as manifestations of the same Brahman so to speak. The “dvaita” and the advaita schools of thought have been in existence in Hinduism from times immemorial. I am not scholarly enough to expound the principles of both these “vada” s(arguments) in their full glory. All I know from my limited knowledge is that Hinduism has traditionally leaned towards more of an advaitic concept of the universe. Evidence of this is in the upanishads where the uniqueness of Brahman is glorified periodically.

But one of the side effects from all is that there is self effacement that is very prevalent in Hindu culture. If the Brahman alone is real, why bother to advertise me (since I don’t exist as an individual or even if I do exist I am an illusory spec in the infinite cosmos) ? So there is very little mention of the authorship of the puranas or the upanishads or the vedas. The only glittering exception to this is the two epics whose authors have been glorified and their biographies documented.

This self effacement manifests itself in the day to day life of many Indians. Notoriously little is known of the history of the great ancient Indian civilization thereby leaving scope for any kind of interpretations which are best suited to serve the advantage of the interpreters. We have the Aryans and the dravidians and a sharp divide that is easily created between the two. We are told that the South Indians being dravidians are trampled by the north indian aryans. We are told that we need to raise entire political parties to uplift our plight.

This same self effacement is even reflected in the crematory rites of Hindus. Since the body is transitional there is no need to glorify it by giving it a place of burial. In short we take the “ashes to dust and dust to ashes” thing seriously. I am personally very proud to be part of this culture of self effacement since in the broad scope of things I do realize I am pretty insignificant. I am moved to tears literally when I read verses in the upanishads and the Gita which talk about how the Atman and the Paramatman. Read this beautiful presentation of Manisha panchakam especially the introductory part where the great Shankara ruminates if there is a difference between the sunlight reflected by the waters of the Ganga or the waters of a mudpot. If you understand this very well and are not moved by it.. hmm I guess it takes all to make this world.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti..