He spoke with clarity and conviction on matters ranging from spirituality, every-day problems, global financial meltdown and what India, with its knowledge riches, can offer to the rest of the world.

The Swamiji also underscored the need for sensitising Indian ambassadors stationed abroad on the Vedic and cultural moorings of the country.

In geo-political terms too, India can play a major role. Especially in the Indian Ocean area, along with Sri Lanka, whose Buddhist culture shares many things with Hindu India’.

 

Spiritualism for many modern middle-path individuals may seem to be an exercise in spartan self-denial. In a materialistic world, bombarded as he or she is by the alluring forces of the market, spiritualism looks to be at cross-purposes with the life of every-day. 

‘But spiritualism is not a negation of modern living,’ Swami Dayanandha Saraswathi says with a conviction that only an evolved Swamiji like him can deliver in such easy, soft tones. ‘It is not a negation of anything,’ he says in an off-the-cuff, wide-ranging talk with News Today.

Chatting with an unhurried ease and elegant prose, the Swamiji puts you in your comfort zone even while arousing your curiosities, delivering chunks of knowledge and insight that he has seamlessly gathered in his unceasing quest for worldly wiseness.

‘Spiritualism is all about making the right choices within the ambit of dharma,’ he elucidates, his voice spontaneously making the right accent on dharma, the all-encompassing but beautifully enigmatic concept of divine jurisprudence.

‘Spirituality is about living in this world. It can be pursued even while earning money, even when achieving certain concepts of success,’ says the Swamiji, who is seen as the teacher of teachers.

The choice of expression ‘certain concepts of success’ is the key to both spirituality and the sage himself. It lays bare the deep understanding the Swamiji has of life and its innate truths. Success, in modern living, means one thing, while success in its truest sense, points to something else.

 The Swamiji understands the difference. True spirituality may actually lie bridging the two. ‘Spirituality is not opposed to anything. It is about making life more real,’ he says, his eyes radiating warmth and wisdom.

Describing India as the ‘cradle of spiritualism’, the Vedantha expert, who has championed the knowledge treasure of India to the rest of the world for over three decades now, says ‘India has a lot to offer to the rest of the world’, especially in this time of global strife. In India’s organic spiritual riches may lie the solutions to many of the modern-day blights.

But for the rest of the world to beat a path to India, the ambassadors and other diplomats who represent India must be made more aware of the country’s heritage and pristine past. ‘The government must sensitise the ambassadors, make them understand the moorings of the land, the Vedic values that the civilisation is bedrocked on,’ the Swamiji says.

But can a government, caught in a milieu of denial of Hindu values, deliver that? ‘It has to,’ the Swamiji says succinctly. ‘Secularism does not mean being anti-Hindu.’ A simple message, but one whose roots run deep.

In geo-political terms too, India can play a major role. For instance, vis-a-vis Sri Lanka, Hinduism and Buddhism, the two defining cultures of the  respective nations, have plenty in common. ‘The idea of enlightenment, the concept of ahimsa. There are many things that are identical’.

The Swamiji suggests that since there is something so intrinsically common, both the nations can forge a relationship that can be beneficial to both. His line of thinking also matches with the emerging global reality, when Indian Ocean is expected to be the next ‘action location’ (in terms of international commerce and strategic processes).

Swami Dayanandha points out that the process of Hindu-Buddhist synchronisation may already have started with the conference of religious heads of the two religions at Cambodia recently. But the Swamiji has a strong opinion on the other seeming Buddhist nation in the area, China (see box).

The Swamiji, who is in the city giving a series of lectures under the topic ‘Turning Adversity to One’s Advantage’, is also quite positive and optimistic in taking the quintessence of Hinduism to the younger generation.

‘They are open. We must address them properly,’ he says of the modern-day youths. ‘We must find out the right modes of campaigning with them,’ subtly hinting that the vehicle of communication has to be properly planned. But he is not for jettisoning ‘form’ for the sake of convenience. ‘In Hinduism ‘form’ and ‘methods’ (religious practices and rituals) have a vital bearing. There is a certain charm to them’.

‘Make them, the youths, to take pride in their culture and traditions,’ he says. ‘The oneness (an obvious reference to the Advaitha philosophy of Adhi Sankara) of things will naturally bring them on the path of progress’.

The Swamiji understands that Hinduism, despite being a free-flowing force of life, may face problems in the form of other religious forces that set much store on negativity. ‘Conversions are obviously an issue. Let them practise their religion. Let us practise our religion. Coercion should not be there. Then there will be harmony all around’.

In fact, it was a harmonious jingle of ideas and imagination as Swamiji expounded, both in his chat with this newspaper and his series of lectures at Kamarajar Hall, on many matters of human significance.  Those who were recipient to his pearls of insight were richer for the experience.  The lecture series comes to an end this evening (27 June) at the  Kamarajar Hall.

The dangerous paradox of China

‘Global free trade was a wrong thing,’ Swami Dayanandha Saraswathi says. It is not as if the revered Swamiji is an advocate of Communism, and opposed to the modern forces of economy. But his reaction comes from his nuanced understanding of the biggest Communist force standing on earth now, China.

The Swamiji, in his own inimitable sense of humour, points to the paradox of the biggest exporter to the ‘unionism’, having no labour unions in its own turf. ‘It is an unequal battle. China is responsible for the global turmoil. Or rather, the foolishness of the world in allowing this (China’s duplicity) is responsible’.

The Swamiji’s opposition to global free trade also comes from a more practical and realistic plane. ‘There is no parity. An unskilled labour in India earns around Rs 100 in a day. It is something that is made within 15 minutes in the US’.

The infrastructure, the work ethic are all so different. The Swamiji makes a case that free trade hits countries on both sides of the spectrum (say if infrastructure bottlenecks cripple India, outsourcing hurts the jobs in US very badly). But spiritualism of the Hindu variety has salve for both the wounds.