The Heritage of Indian Culture: 1.3 -Swami Krishnananda

.

===========================================================================================================

Tuesday 17, February 2026, 06:45. 
Books
Bhagavadgita & Hinduism
The Heritage of Indian Culture - 3.  
1.The Vision of India - 3.
Swami Krishnananda.
Post-3.

===========================================================================================================

Today, people in India are a medley of various problems and memories of the past, hopes of the future, and so on. In spite of these, there is nevertheless a little candle flame burning in the corners of the country, which cries out in the language of the ancient culture. One of the reasons is, as I said, the accommodating capacity of the culture.

You would be wondering what this accommodation is and where comes the necessity or the ability to entertain such a view. The ability to accommodate oneself with other peoples' ideas and ideals is not merely a charity that we extend to others. It is not a condescension in a grudging manner of the attitudes of other people, but is an understanding and an affection one feels for the outlooks of others. When I agree with you, it does not mean I grudgingly, somehow or other, do not mind your ideas; that is a different thing, a negative accommodation. A positive accommodation is an appreciation of your point of view. I get on with you, not because I somehow or other have to tolerate you; that is not the reason. I get on with you happily because I see in you a value which is dear to me also. This is a great vision indeed, and hard to entertain in one's mind.

Most people cannot see any meaning in the outlooks of their enemies, and some of the meanings which their own friends recognise in their own lives are also incapable of accommodation. I may have my friends, though I may not be able to appreciate all of their ideas and ideals. But if they are my enemies, I totally hate them. This is usually the tendency of man's mind. But the culture of Bharatavarsha has been entertaining an outlook of a different nature altogether. Hatred was not its policy, and I do not think even today India has a policy of hatred. Rather, there are people who think that its affection for other cultures is its weakness. It may turn out to be a weakness when it is expressed in unintelligible or unintelligent manner, but the essence of it is not a weakness. It is a strength and a goodness. Even goodness has to be expressed in a good manner, because wisdom is the law of life, finally, and it is not ethics or a mere outward conduct that is to support our existence. The morality and the ethics of life is necessary, of course, but the wisdom of life is greater. This includes ethics and morality, and transcends them. We may call it an interpretation of their significance, rather than merely their outward forms.

Thus, to come again to the point which I mentioned earlier, the culture of India has been an accommodating outlook. We may think that Indian culture is Hindu culture. Here, again, I have to divert a little regarding the word 'Hindu'. There is no such thing as 'Hindu', really speaking. The Hindus are not 'Hindus', because that word does not exist in the culture of India. It was coined by people who came from outside India, for designating the land which they saw and the people which were living in the country. The Persians and the Greeks were the people who came first from outside India, and they had to cross the river Sindhu, which we call the Indus today. They had no idea as to what sort of land extended beyond the river Sindhu. The Persian language requires the pronunciation of 'S' as 'H', so 'Sindhu' was regarded as the name of the country, and the people and their culture 'Hindu'. Thus 'S' becoming 'H', 'Sindhu' becomes 'Hindu'; and in Greek 'H' becomes 'I', 'Hindu' becomes 'Ind', and 'Ind' has become 'India' and 'Indians'; and 'Hindu' still persists.

So, what the name of this country was before these people came, and what their culture was called before they entered India – this is a different matter. I am just mentioning to you that the name of this country is not 'India'; it has come to be called so by these accidents of history, and the people in India are not 'Hindus'. Hence, there is no such thing as 'Hindu' culture, or even 'Indian' culture, in general parlance.

It was a culture which was associated with a vision of perfection. Even today, people sometimes call it the vision of the sanatana, or the Eternal; and the culture or the law that is associated with this eternity is oftentimes called, even now, as sanatana dharma. But today it means something different from what it originally meant; it has become a sectarian doctrine opposed to other doctrines. Names are great problems these days. We cannot give any name to anything, because the moment we designate a thing by any particular name, it sets itself in opposition to things which have another name. It is our laboured intention to discover a non-opposing culture that is India – the Bharatiya samskriti, or we may say, the culture of India.

The culture of India, therefore, is such a comprehensive vision of the values of life that it is something which transcends the outlooks of ordinary Indians. We may say that the culture of India is not Hindu religion, if by 'religion' we mean what Hinduism is in our minds at the present moment. If Indian culture was identical merely with Hinduism, it could not accommodate other religions; but we live peacefully with other religious cults and faiths.

*****

Continues

=======================================================================================================