The Bhagvad Gita (Fourth Canto) calls
the Yogis Rajarshees who enjoyed the highest status in society.
‘A much-cited example, depicted on some
of the Harappan seals, is that of a big-nosed gentleman wearing a horned
head-dress who sits in the lotus position with an erect penis, an air of
abstraction and an audience of animals. ‘
(The Harappan World).
He must have been a Rajarshee.
To identify this figure with Shiva is a
mistake made by scholars steeped in patriarchal values. G. S. Ghurye
in his easy Epic and Historic
Siva, an Indo-Aryan God Shiva, (Vedic India) proves conclusively that their was
no Shiva figure in any seal of the Sindhu civilization. Siva, one of the
powerful Gods of Hinduism, later identified with Rudra, is a great warrior and
hunter. The main value that Harappan
Yogis and Yoginis exhibit is non-violence.
Harappan elite did not believe in any God. Their philosophies
(Aanwikhiki: Yoga, Samkhya and Lokayat) stress values based fully on
rationality. Devotion or BHAKTI as an over powering emotion, was not present in
pre-Christ India.
‘……… doubts surround the female
terracotta figurines which are often described as mother-goddesses. Pop-eyed,
bat-eared, belted and sometimes mini-skirted, they are usually of crude
workmanship and grotesque mien. Only a dust-eyed archaeologist could describe
them as ‘pleasing little things’. The
bat-ears, on closer inspection, appear to be elaborate headdresses or
hairstyles. If, as the prominent and clumsily applied breasts suggest, they
were fertility symbols.……..’
(The Harappan World).
The abundance of female terracotta
figurines indicates the presence of numerous Yoginis in society. More than fifteen hundred years later, the
non-violence- value- accepting Joginis were converted into blood – thirsty
Goddesses. This happened when the male value of violence over whelmed society
in the fifth and sixth century AD. The
hedonistic cult of Tantra became powerful and the SAKTI cult became prominent in Eastern India. The Joginis were sixty four in number where
as there was one warrior so –called Yogi, Shiva. Uma, a non- violent Goddess of the Upanishads
became Durga, a ferocious Goddess. Those
were the days when the non-violence preaching popular book, the Bhagvad Gita,
was converted into a book preaching violence (D.D. Kosambi: he based his remarks on Hiuen Tsang’s memoirs). Ancient Jainism speaks against the caste
system and the Brahmin hegemony.
The Mahabharata refers to the Joginis
in many places. They were sexually free
and roamed in the land (Sulabha, Jabala, Itara & many others). The Vedas
mention two women as chiefs of some communities. When Indra met them, he laughed and ridiculed
them because they were unfit to fight wars.
‘R. S. Sharma argues that evidence for
‘band’ organization (a pre-tribal stage in which a group of people not
necessarily related by blood come together for food-gathering, hunting or
fighting) notwithstanding, Rgvedic society on the whole was ‘tribal, pastoral
and largely egalitarian’. The main
source of subsistence was cattle and not agricultural products. Apart from cattle-herding, raids were a major
source of livelihood. He quotes the well
known remark of Marx that man-hunting was the logical extension of animal
hunting ……….’
CASTE: by Suvira Jaiswal
Animal domestication was also the
logical extension of hunting because it made the availability of meat through
out the year possible. Hunters soon
turned into warriors and made men and women of weaker groups their slaves. Such
a situation did not prevail in India during the period of the Sindhu
civilization.
In the book SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ANCIENT
INDIA, D.P. Chatterji conclusively proves that the science of healing
reached the highest level possible in the world in that age. The Greek civilization of the later days
failed to reach such levels. ‘The Vedic
elite, steeped in superstitions and wrong beliefs, tried to control the flow of
free thought in India. Cosmologists and
mathematicians reached a high level in science. The Vedic elite were unable to
understand them.’ (Amartya Sen: The Argumentative Indian).
Lokayat was the best philosophy devised
by a matricentric society for the welfare of humanity. It is desirable to discuss this philosophy
which Kautilya thinks will build the best type of society in the world
(Arthasastra).
----- Lokayat is
the only philosophy in the world which preaches equality of all species which
seems to be the aim and purpose of nature.
-----Lokayat
accepts equality in status of both males and females.
-----Lokayat
abhors all types of violence. They
treated all animals as their kith and kin.
-----Lokayat
opposes all barriers to equality like the caste system, the self – created
feeling of superiority of any section of humanity (the Greeks treated non-Greek
people as inferior uncivilized Barbarians).
-----Lokayatikas
want to be perfectly rational in all their deeds and words (unlike European
rationalists, they believe that only a profoundly calm mind, free from self-
interest, anger, lust, strong attachment to worldly pleasures can be
rational. The word SUKHA used in this
context to convey a state of mind was misunderstood by the philosophers of both
the East and West because they failed to seek the true meaning of SUKHA
explained in the two famous books, the Gita and Dhammapada. SUKHA is the pleasure principle of nature
confined to the neo-cortex of the frontal part of the mind. The pleasure
principle of the reptilian mind and the pleasure principle of the limbic mind
(mammalian mind) are different.
Western
philosophers and scientists have not studied the controlling and pleasure
–giving- capacity of the pre- frontal cortex on which Yoga concentrates.
-----Lokayatikas
actively preached their philosophy among the people without any fear of death,
dishonor or loss of property. They
believed in deeds, not in words. They
risked the wrath of the rich and the powerful to preach their philosophy.
Charvak was killed by the greedy Vedic Brahmins with the covert support of the
Pandavas, when he condemned the Pandavas for the violence of the Mahabharata
war.
-----Lokayatikas
did not believe in life after death.
-----Lokayatikas
were out and out materialists.
-----Lokayatikas
were against all types of metaphysical speculations. They believed in what their senses dictated
(PRATYAKSHA PRAMANA). Lokayatikas of later days accepted inference (PAROKSHA
PRAMANA) also as the basis of truth. They vehemently criticized animal slaughter in
the Yagnas
and also the caste system.
-----Lokayatikas
did not believe in supernatural beings.
They opposed the theory of Karma and rebirth. This made them different
from the Buddhists and Jains.
-----They opposed
sacrifice (YAGNA). They abhorred animal slaughter in sacrifices.
-----Lokayatika
philosophers (Yoginis) were there in large numbers in the Sindhu
civilization. They accepted
‘non-violence’ as the supreme value of life. There was perfect sexual freedom
among both males and females.
-----In the
Ramayana, Lokayat Jabala places people’s welfare as a higher value than truth.
He requests Ramachandra to return to Ayodhya. Adiparba of the Mahabharata
places non-violence as a value above truth in the Kausika myth.
-----It is
unfortunate that Lokayat philosophers were presented as hedonists by many scholars of the West and East. Hedonism was present in Tantra philosophies,
not in Lokayat.
-----The
Gita tells that Yoga and Samkhya philosophies are the same. The Jaina Sutras say that Samkhya and Lokayat
are the same (D. P. Chatterji; Lokayat).
Lokayat philosophers were active among the people. In the Vedic Age, they incurred the wrath of
the Vedic Aryans. In the age of the
Buddha, they preached against Karmabad
(the theory of Karma) and the Theory of Rebirth. The Mahabharata was written by a Lokayat
philosopher because 1. It placed the value of non-violence above truth. 2. The
Mahabharata contains verses (SLOKAS) that vehemently criticize the Vedic priests
(Activities such as priestly work done in sacrifices, big and small; deity worship
by professional priests in temples and the use of astrological knowledge for predicting the future are nefarious types of work (The
Mahabharata: Santiparva). 3.
Every type of violence including the so-called just wars was condemned in
strong terms (Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah):
killing animals in sacrifices was
criticized in the legend of Uparichara Basu in the Mahabharata.
In the days of the Buddha, there was a
group of famous philosophers who belonged to the AJIVAKA CULT. All of them accepted non –violence as their
main value.
In the Modern age, Mahatma Gandhi proved that non-violent struggles lead to success without producing
ill-will among the opponents.
Controlling AMYGDALE violence through
the pre-frontal neo-cortex and increasingly harboring empathy for all living
beings (because of mirror neurons) is the specialty of human beings. Nature wanted us to serve its aim of the survival
of all the species. When carnivores
appeared, nature produced in them the tendency of self-destruction. The same
tendency of self-destruction (wars, terrible in-equality, exploitation of
weaker nations and climate destruction) is at present endangering human
survival because we have forsaken the path fixed by nature which devised the
female brain as the motor for choosing non-violence, non-competition and non-
hierarchy as the right path of
development (scientist Louann Brizendine).
In the present world we can advocate and stress matricentric values
nurturing socialism to save humanity from sure destruction.
Creative individuals are the most
important elements in human society. Creativity
only thrives in the social environment of liberty where a fierce sense of
individuality exists in extraordinary individuals and is tolerated by the
society. Those who think that ‘individuality’ is a gift of the western society
are requested to study the following verses of the Mahabharata.
‘A wise man shuns honour like poison;
he always welcomes insults and abuses as nectar.’
‘Neither attachment to wealth nor the
fear of losing one’s life should make a man leave the path of Dharma (love for
all living creatures of the world).’ All
sorts of collective selfishness like nationalism, racism and casteism should be
shunned by such a man.
The Buddha asked his disciples to
concentrate their attention on Dhamma alone and not to aspire for honour among his
lay followers and also the renouncers.
Aanwikshiki society of India, by giving
the highest place to the value of ‘nonviolence’ in society, created the proper
environment for extraordinarily creative persons. Such environment was not available even in
the twentieth century in Europe and the US. The propaganda machine of the
powerful media managed by capitalists creates only mass societies dominated by
the violent herd in every country, with very few exceptions. India is no exception. Such societies can not
nourish socialism.
‘A socialist society should create the
right atmosphere for creativity. Einstein writes ‘Europe today contains about
three times as many people as it did a hundred years ago. But the number of leading personalities has
decreased out of all proportion. Only a few people are known to the masses as
individuals, through their creative achievements. Organization has to some extent taken the
place of leading personalities, particularly not only in the technical sphere,
but also to a very perceptible extent in the scientific.’ (Society and Personality: Einstein)’
‘The lack of outstanding figures is
particularly striking in the domain of art.
Painting and music have definitely degenerated and largely lost their
popular appeal. In Politics not only are
leaders lacking, but the independence of spirit and the sense of justice of the
citizen have to a great extent declined.
The democratic, parliamentarian regime, which is based on such
independence, has in many places been shaken; dictatorships have sprung up and
are tolerated, because men’s sense of the dignity and the rights of the
individual is no longer strong enough.
In two weeks the sheep like masses of any country can be worked up by
the newspapers into such a state of excited fury that men are prepared to put
on uniforms and kill and be killed for the sake of the sordid ends of a few
interested parties. Compulsory military
service seems to me the most disgraceful symptom of that deficiency in personal
dignity from which civilized mankind is suffering today.’
(Society and Personality: Einstein)
Bertrand Russell writes, ‘If a society
is not to stagnate, it must contain individuals who think and act independently
and there must be sufficient toleration for such individuals to be effective.
Galileo was silenced by the Inquisition, and Italian science collapsed to
revive only after two hundred years; the work of Galileo was carried on in
France and Holland and England, where the tyranny of ignorance was less severe.’
Only a socialist society can give full
freedom to the dissident individuals.
Tagore’s songs (Walk alone even when no body is ready to follow you; Where
the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Even if your own people
desert you for your ideas, you should not bother about it) can guide the
socialists. Gandhi followed the ideals embodied
in these Tagore songs all most to the letter.
Bhagwat
Prasad Rath,
3rd
Line, Roith Colony,
At/PO/Dist. –
Rayagada –2
PIN- 765002,
Odisha.
Phone No.
06856-235092
Cell
No.-08895860598
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