Indian Youth In Search Of Icons

INDIAN YOUTH IN SEARCH OF ICONS

              An Icon means a model or an example one can emulate. Originally, the word icon meant
a religious and sacred symbol, and in the latest computer terminolgy, it means a symbol used as a
diagram or picture. But in the popular usage, icon means a charismatic person who can draw a good
following and provide them an ideal and identity. To have a good example, an icon that appeals to
heart, is one of the prime needs of a young person. There is no dearth of icons in the Indian
Tradition, says Prema Nandakumar, a devotee of Sri Ramakrishnan and Sri Aurobindo, from Srirangam in
Tamil Nadu. The author has sevaral publications to her credit, besides sevaral articles published in
various Journals.

Is Our Culture Outdated..?

               Often we hear complaints from the younger generation that our culture has become
outmoded. 'We are in the 21st Century' is a sentence repeatedly flung at us. This is the age of
electronic mastery of communications. Science and technology are fast subduing the unknoen. So
they say and turn away to what they consider new horizons, holding in hand the new icons of
inspirations: the cellphone at the ears, the laptop in one hand and the glossy inflight magazine
in the other.

                We do not blame them. In an attempt to show that Indian Culture has had the strength
to survive twenty to thirty centuries with ease, we have unconsciously made is appear as an
oversized, ancient antity, out of touch with the modern world. Our scholars repeatedly try to push
back the dates of our scriptures as if age alone is holiness. Truly speaking, if our Upanishads and
Puranas have survived to this day, it is because of their power of knowledge, the powers of Savita

(the sun deity, symbolizing creation) whom we continue to evke for inspiration through the Gayatri Mantra : Om tat savitur varenyam bhargo dhevasya dheemahidhiyo yo na prachodayat.

                'We meditate on the glory of that being who has produced this universe; may he
enlighten our minds.'

                Consider the above Sanskrit verse of 24 syllables and reflect over how it has
been the mainstay of innumerable traditions, from the most orthodox Vedic religions to the Sufi
traditions of dervishes. How can we put an 'age-ag' to it?

                  Another problem that has unconsciously affected the psyche of the younger generation
in keeping away from our culture has been the visual representation of our sages in sculpture,
painting, films. They seem to be always old people, having matted hair and long beards. Once again,
the unconscious comes to the fore. What can this old fogey advice me about my problem today?
The contrast is made sharper because of the association of wisdom today with 'a well groomed look'
as a Master of Business Administration or the Director of a Multinational. The very richness of Indian
Culture-so wide, so deep-has also been a deterrent. What is can remain focused? Hence Indian youth
stands today somewhat perplexed about the phenomenon of our culture. The youth generation would like
to know what constitues the core of this tradition which could help them advance in life, material
as well as spiritual. But battered by the visual media the answer seems to be elusive.

India's Cultural Awakening

                  Fortunately for us, a little over a hundred years ago, an event occurred which
replicated the Upanishadic times. A guru was seen surrounded by his disciples in a temple at kolkata.
Not much went on except conversation that was interspersed with devotional hymns. The guru himself
was not very old and many of the disciples were just teenagers. That was a time when English
education and the materialistic way of living had taken Indian youth in its vice-like grip.
That was the time when precious palm leaf manuscripts were being thrown away in the Ganges or Cauvery
as worthless scribblings of incomprehensible religious traditions. That was the time when British
rule over India seemed destined to last for ever and ever. And the guru was Sri Ramakrishnan.

                   Sri Aurobindo, a young man of 22, educated at Cambridge returns home in 1893 and
hears of this guru. By then Sri Ramakrishnan has withdrawn from the physical world and Swami Vivekanandan,
another young man of 30 is spreading India's eternal message of Vedanta in America. Sri Aurobindo ,
fired by an intensive love of his motherland flings his challenge at the British empire. Remember,
he announces: Macaulay's victims have become devotees of Sri Ramakrisna! Speaking to a large audience at
Mahajan Wadi, Bombay on 19th January, 1908, Sri Aurobindo said quietly that if one had faith in GOD, GOD
will find a way to speak to our hearth: 'It is to the hearth that God speaks, it is in the hearth that
GOD resides.' Some of the highly educated men of Bengal had not ceased to believe in GOD and when
the time came, it was easy for them to recognize the voice of GOD..

                    'One of them, the man 9Sri Ramakrishna) who had the greatest influence and has
done the most to regenerate Bengal, could not read and write a single word. He was a man who had been
what they call absolutely useless to the world. But he had this one divine faculty in him, that he had
more than faith and had realized God.'

                      There were the scoffers who did say such men were 'useless to society'. What
is the use of a temple priest who can only intone some ritualistic mantras? Even in our own times
we have such myopic men who dismiss him as no more than a frenzied priest of a kali temple. Did he
know kant? Did he invent any technology instrument? Would he have been able to handle the keys of a
Remington typewriter that was on the market in his time? But in his own time, Sri Ramakrishna was
recognized a a man of GOD by eminent intellectuals as well. Sri Aurobindo writes of those times..

                      'But GOD knew what he was doing. He sent that man to
                       Bengal and set him in the Temple of Dakshineshwar
                       in Calcutta, and from North and South and East and
                       West, the educated men, men who were the pride of
                       the university, who had studied all that the Europe
                       can teach came to fall at the feet of this young
                       ascetic. The work of Salvation, the work of raising
                       India was begun'

                             What the youth needed was faith in the sanatana dharma which taught
selflessness and courage, the needs of the hour. For Indians, faith in GOD has always meant a faith
in sanatana dharma which is a faith in the glory and good that is man. Countless are the times when
racial experience distilled thus has been brought to us as the Religion of Man with the refrain,
esha dharmah sanatanah-this Dharma is eternal.

India's Eternal Search For Truth

                      This Constant search for Human perfection and the alignment of the individual
and the community moving in tune with each other, is what is known as the sanatana dharma. In this
very act of garnering the wisdom of the ages as the Ancient Way, we have been gifted with innumerable
icons that suit individual characters and aspirations. There are plenty of Ideals and Icons in our
culture that help us to achieve a good life. What we need is faith in these ideals that have an
undeniable transformatory power to make the today's youth ambassadors of the peerless Indian culture
to teach others the significance of the word civilization.

                       A hundred years ago Sri Aurobindo found such ambassadors who taught the whole
nation how to rise against oppression and the debilitatory effects of the materialism. He saw that
the inspiration set in motion by the presence of Sri Ramakrishna and given an active thrust by
Swami Vivekananda taught the youth of Bengal to have faith and gain the strength that faith gives
to suffer for the good of the nation..

                       Why should the youth be worried that things seem to be bad all around? In truth,
it is not so. Dharmacontinues to thrive among the common people and that is why mankind continues
to move forward. To recognize this and push onwards, one needs along with faith and selflessness
and courage to be extensions of one's faith. So he addresses the youth of his time (and the youth
of all times)

                        'When you believe in GOD, when you believe that GOD is guiding you, believe
that GOD is doing all and that you are doing nothing, what is there to fear?... What is there that
you can fear when you are conscious of him who is within you? Courage is then a necessity, courage
is natural and courage is inevitable.'

Returning To Our Own Roots

                         With this firm faith secured, we have to find out how best to make of
ourselves invincible warriors by getting trained in sanatana dharma. But i can hear my young readers
protesting: Where are the leaders to inspire us with such faith that brings in its wake selflessness
and courage? That is why we place before the youth of India this ancient heritage, the sanatana
dharma. Interestingly enough, in this the centre is every where, the circumference nowhere. Why not
make a beginning with Panchatantra and Hitopadesa instead of wasting our time in purpseless meandeings
of violence in the name of magic projected in the latest best-sellers? Come then to our treasures
of commonsense, our scintillating baskets of wit and humour, our precious caskets of faith and
spirituality, our hard disks of noble living. Make a beginning with two of the finest icons Indian
youth can reach out for, the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesa! Even if you do not study anything else
but simply maste and imbibe the whole of these two works and act according to the tenents, victory
will be yours in all your undertakings.

                         To Hitopadesa, then. A book which is ageless. ancient and never palls. A
work which is down to earth, but high in instilling soulful faith. The opening section places
before us the importance of learning, and what it does to gain for us fortune and faultless-ananda.

                          'Learning, although possessed by a low man, introduces him to the king
who is (ordinarily) inapproachable, just as a river, although flowing through a low region, takes
one to the inaccessible sea: (sources) from which floweth great to fortune.'

                           Learning endows one with modesty; from (having) modesty one passes on to
(gets) worthiness; being worthy one obtains riches; from riches religious merit and from that happiness.'!

                           Sanatana dharma does not teach simply such moralistic formulae. The
 practice always is to make you to think for yourselves. What is good for the individual? What is
beneficial to the community? Which is the right path to achieve the best of living for both the
individual and the society? This is how parables became the rich granary of Indian culture and Hitopadesa
contains one of the oldest and richest collections of such stories. it is amazing to know that for several
millenia we have learnt the values of self-sacrifice for loyalty from Viravara, of discrimination from
the tale of Chudamani and the barber, of the power of intelligence in the fall of the elephant
Karpuratilaka and of the evil of arrogance in the suicidal leap of the lion Durdanta. Painlessly
wisdom was injected into the young mind of Pandit Vishnusarman who taught the sons of king Sudarsana
of Pataliputra. Indeed, throughout Hitopadesa pellets of good judgement are strewn about with a
prodigal hand.

Conclusions

      Indian youth who are in search of icons to lead a gracious and virtuous life and become achievers,
ought to hold on to one or two of these and they would never feel the lack of inspirations in their
life. Yes, life on earth is never smooth-sailing. But our foundations have placed before us heroes and
heroines like arjuna and Damayanti who have suffered, endured and overcome. It was inspirations
like these books and characters that gave us a Swami Vivekananda, a mother Sarada Devi, a Sister
Nivedita. Hold on fast to our cultural foundations and all will be well. Havent we the widely known
vedic chant to sculpt our lives and fare well and fare forward? Satyam vada, dharmam chara!

    'Speak the truth
     Practise virtue (dharma)
     Neglect not study (of the vedas)
     Having brought an acceptable gift to the tacher
     Cut not off the line of progeny
     One should not be negligent of truth
     One should not be negligent virtue
     One should not be negligent welfare
     One should not be negligent prosperity
     Be one to whom a mother is as a GOD
     Be one to whom a father is as a GOD                
     Be one to whom a a teacher is as a GOD
     Be one to whom a guest is as a god'

Where else can we find better guidelines to live fulfilling lives? Why not dig into our own ancient
ageless heritage and make these our own? The choice is ours.