Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Stages of spirituality - 1

I feel there is not a place in the world as conducive to pursue spirituality as is Bharat. It has become so due to centuries and aeons of cultural, religious and philosophical heritage around spiritual progress.

Instead of competing with other countries on the same parameters as they do to measure development, those brought up here should appreciate our heritage and introspect our unique USPs. Something like how Bhutan measures itself on Gross Happiness Quotient. My challenge to our nation is: Why can't we measure ourselves on (say) Gross Enlightenment Quotient.

By doing this we'll first be forced to reflect, then introspect, and then come up with a way forward. The reason an entity, be it an individual, or a country looks outside for guidance, is the recognition that we have made mistakes. And the inferiority complex that goes with it. In the context of Bharat, it was the embarrassing fact that although united by religion and philosophy, the rulers never chose to be united. Which is why for centuries we were plundered and enslaved. Even our joint families don't survive because of that, we just refuse to adjust and share with one another and have a selfishness of my inheritance for my progeny alone.

I think the British rule was the last straw and the way nation-states are shaped in this day and age has also kept us together. But you can see from the corruption and the way political parties fleece their vote banks (which is nothing but segregation of the country), the way caste and religion still decides whom we befriend and marry, that we have still not grown above the mentality that led us to servility in the first place. So there is definitely a need to introspect, own up to our shortcomings, and plan corrective and checks-and-balances systems before we adopt a new development measure.

In the next edition, I'll go a level easier with an analogy of how we have the spiritual establishments in place already to help us seek the Gross Enlightenment goals.

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