Author: Pankaj Jain
Publication: Swaveda
Date: April 28, 2004
URL: http://www.swaveda.com/articles.php?action=show&id=17
Swadhyaya is one of the most prominent
living phenomena of Indian culture in 21st century. We have read and heard
a lot about the Indian culture, well, here is Indian culture in action.
A role model for the entire world based on indigenous Indic concepts. Swadhyaya
Parivar is a global family of volunteers who follow Swadhyaya, a holistic
Vedic philosophy based on Gnaan (knowledge), Karma (Action) and Bhakti
(devotion). Swadhyaya, in the true spirit of Indic Traditions, is neither
a sect nor a cult. It neither tries to define Hinduism nor defend it. It
matches with the broad based definition of Dharma rather than "Hinduism"
as defined by orientalists and post-colonialists. Its admirers also include
Muslims and Christians.
Neither the founder of Swadhyaya
nor the current leader is Sanyaasi. All Swadhyayi (practitioners of Swadhyaya)
are householders. Number of Swadhyayis now ranges more than 20 million
people around the world. Swadhyaya never asks or appeals for any form of
donation. There is never any "fund-raising" done for any Swadhyaya events
in any part of the world. Swadhyaya has never built a single temple anywhere
in the world. It has never asked for any outside support from government
or from wealthy people. It has no concept of membership, hierarchy or formal
office. It has never done any advertisement or propaganda and so it remains
a low key (best kept secret according to one of my friends!). Even though
it is a spiritual and cultural Parivar, the followers are not given any
Mantra to meditate, nor is there any concept of maala or Taaweez. Rather
the focus is on the intellectual aspects of Dharma.
It was founded by Shri Pandurang
Shastri Athavale who himself is an authority on Sanskrit, Vedas, Upanishads,
Gita and other Indian scriptures. He is also a scholar of western knowledge
including Marxism, Hegel, Khalil Jibran, Freud, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity
etc. He was honored by doctorates by two Indian Universities. According
to him, "Swadhyayis are merely Bhaktas (devotees)" and "Bhakti (devotion)
is social force." Indeed this novel concept of devotion married with intellectual
and activistic zeal has created a massive force by launching a Panchrangi
Kranti, a quiet revolution on five fronts, political, social, economical,
cultural and psychological.
What Swadhyaya is not and what it
is:
- It strives to uplift women but
Swadhyayis are not "feminists" since they don't reject the traditional
roles of women even though they have devised many novel concepts for them.
- It builds bridges across castes
and classes but they are not "social workers", since their perspective
is of being spiritual workers.
- It interprets traditional Vedic
concepts in modern ways but they are not "religious reformers", since they
prefer to call their ideas as experiments rather than reforms.
- It inspires patriotism in youth
but they are not "nationalistic leaders", since it is not involved in active
politics.
- It focuses on innovative experiments
in the field of education in all levels and ages of society but they are
not "educators", since that is not its sole criterion to spread knowledge.
- It is involved in charity work
at a massive level in thousands of Indian villages but Swadhyaya is not
a "charity organization", since it rejects the usual definition of charity
in which wealth is used to donate to earn name and fame.
- It develops new theological concepts
but it is neither a "sect" nor a "creed" nor a "cult", since it does not
encourage blind devotion to any ideology or personality.
- Major emphasis of teachings is
derived from Vedic scriptures but it is not a typical "Hindu organization",
since it is not bounded by the regular definition of Hindu or Hinduism.
- One of the most important aspect
is to spread the Vedic philosophy in remote areas of society by active
out-reach efforts but it is not a "Missionary Proselytizing church-like
movement", since there is no conversion involved.
Swadhyaya In International/ Interfaith
Forums
Swadhyaya has already left its mark
on international/interreligious platforms. Consider following examples:
- In Jan 2002, when Pope John Paul
organized Assisi Peace conference in the wake of 9/11, Swadhyaya was given
the first place to deliver the keynote speech.
- In May 2002. When UNICEF organized
a conference on Children education, once again it was only Swadhyaya, which
was invited from Indian/ Hindu community.
- This is the only Vedic Parivar,
which was awarded world's biggest monetary award Templeton Prize in 1997
for progress and innovation in religion. This prize was founded by Sir
John Templeton about thirty years ago to create a prize in the field of
religion, since Nobel Prize does not include religion as a category. What
makes it even more remarkable is the fact that Templeton Foundation's major
emphasis is to spread the Christianity by emphasizing its scientific appeal.
Yet, they could not ignore the innovative zeal of Swadhyaya and had to
give this award to a non-Christian thinker. The founder of Swadhyaya was
also given Magsaysay Award in 1996 for Community Leadership.
- Two North American universities
have courses about Swadhyaya, Concordia University, Montreal and University
of Iowa. In addition, Swadhyaya is appreciated by scholars such as T S
Rukmani, Subhash Kak, Arvind Sharma, Majid Rahnuma, Daniel Gold, Betty
Unterburgar, Paul Ekins, Arun Shourie, and Vidyanivas Mishra etc.
Above examples show that Swadhyaya
has achieved many milestones with very little effort on publicity, since
their focus is more on internal strength and development. It remains a
dormant thread in the public sphere because it has never depended on the
media for publicity. Swadhyaya is emerging globally as a strong Indic phenomenon
unbound by traditional Hindu definition, but based on truly dharmic definition.
It is neither sectarian nor dogmatic nor ritualistic; rather it is based
on Indic concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, world as a family.
It is time for all of us to take
a serious look at Swadhyaya and do a deep analysis of it and say it with
pride in international forums of our practical example of Indian culture.
On the one hand, we worry that India is not producing enough global leaders
and on the other hand we tend to be ignorant of our own leading initiatives.
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References
1. http://www.swadhyay.org
2. Concordia University Course on
Swadhyaya: From Satyagraha to Swadhyaya, a religion course taught by David
Lawrence comparing the life and work of Gandhi and Athavale: http://artsandscience.concordia.ca/religion/courses_2002-03.html
3. Majid Rahnuma, Daniel Gold, Betty
Unterburgar, Paul Ekins, Arun Shourie, Vidyanivas Mishra and many others
have written about Swadhyaya in the book Vital Connections, published in
2000:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0834804085/qid=1070242129/sr=1-1/
ref=sr_1_1/002-4367720-6700849?v=glance&s=books
