The ‘Bharat’ Metaphor! - IV

 

 

 

THIS is the most critical nuance of the Bharat metaphor. Bharat was (and is and will be) one place where liberation -- Moksha -- is the goal of all learning or acquisition of knowledge. Most ancient texts (whose timeline enormous beyond calculation) refer to this nuance time and again -- moksha as the goal of every human endeavour of learning. This Vishnu Purana verse, thus, offers a clear-cut distinction between Vidya as the tool to liberation and the skill as something that ties one down. To understand the multi-faceted Bharat metaphor, one, therefore, needs to understand this nuance in full measure. Minus that, nobody can decipher the metaphor correctly. Historically, the whole of the Indian society -- the people of Bharatvarsh, so to say -- had worked out a system, style and substance of education to achieve that sublime goal of helping people to attain moksha or liberation of salvation. So, even as countless lakhs of schools -- Gurukuls -- and institutions of higher learning worked tirelessly to educate the young generations as fully as possible in acquiring different skill-sets that helped in making an honourable living under the confines of Dharma, the aim was to help the students understand that the ultimate goal of life was salvation. Education, thus, was geared to that fine purpose. Of course, the entire body of knowledge was traditionally spread over several segments -- four Veds, six Shastras, fourteen Vidyas, and sixty-four kalas (arts). Trained under such a system of learning, nobody in the society ever went hungry to bed.

 

In other words, the society was capable of creating its own wealth in ample measure so that the idea of poverty was hardly known. There were people with limited resources, all right. Yet, they were never described as poor in the strict sense. In still other words, there might have been poor people, but there was no poverty in the larger Indian society. For, to be poor might have been linked to not having enough resources. The term ‘poverty’, however, indicated a damning condition of the mind. The ancient society of Bharat has ensured that poverty was banished from its midst. And this near-utopian condition was achieved over thousands of years of the purist approach to learning -- Saa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye ! -- as stated earlier. It is this nuance of the Bharat metaphor that appears to be beyond the comprehension of the West in particular. This is not unnecessarily poetic description of the India of those times. Enough textual and contextual evidence is available strewn across the vast of body of written and verbal literature from ancient India’s long time-line to prove that the entire society stood on a fine foundation of education that is so much beyond common comprehension to day -- dominated by the western narrowness of thought. This body evidence relates to all subjects that including different sciences such as mathematics, cosmology, oceanography, astronomy, logic, literature, music, sculpture, painting ...! And interestingly, all these come under one single word ‘Bharat’ (that suggests deepest and highest and finest engagement in pursuit of light -- of knowledge, pure and applied).

 

It must be noted here unfailingly that the entire body of knowledge that ancient India had earned over lakhs of years of tapasya had lakhs of books -- granthas -- on different subjects indicating deep research on every possible issue under the Sun -- and even beyond the Sun, so to say. For, countless ancient treatises of science show clearly that the universe -- ever-expanding -- had multiple Suns and Solar-systems numbering in lakhs. Enough textual and contextual evidence is available in ancient literature showing a very detailed understanding of the universe. In lakhs of Indian homes even today, a simple Sanskrut shlok -- verse -- is chanted daily: Bhanuh Shashi Bhumisuto Bhudhasya Guruh Cha Shukrah Shani Rahu Ketuh/ Kurvantu Sarve Mam Suprabhatam// (Bhanu - Sun, Shashi - Moon, Bhumisut - Mars, Budh - Mercury, Guru - Jupiter, Shukra - Venus, Shani - Saturn, Rahu - North Lunar Node, Ketu - South Lunar Node/ I offer my prayers to all these to mark this good morning//) This verse has been an integral part of morning prayers in lakhs of Indian homes for generations spanning thousands of years. It shows how a good celestial comprehension is woven into consciousness. A word on Bhumisut is necessary here: Bhumi (Earth) Sut (off-spring) -- pointing to striking similarities between geographies of Earth and Mars. This is only to highlight one more nuance of the Bharat metaphor -- with infinite and complex dimensions.