HINDU VIEWS OF WORLD FAMILY

The history of the Sanskrit language is very obscure; though commonly accepted as a branch of Indo-European group of languages. The Western Historians theorize that Sanskrit has the same origin as Prakrit, Zand, Persian and Armenian in Asia and of the Hellenic, Italic, Keltic, Teutonic and Slavonic languages in Europe. The dispute among the scholars about this rich language of Indian antiquity is not yet settled; but indisputably the Sanskrit Literature and the visions of the ancient Indian sages are unique in their compassion and humanitarian expressions: the sages of the yore having the most magnanimous vision for the mankind, which the world in general and Indians in particular have failed to evoke as the mantra for the world family, and as the panacea to all the fragmentation of the mankind plaguing our planet.

Contrary to the common belief, Hinduism is not a religion, it is just a culture growing and flowing on Indian subcontinent for over five millennia. The people who lived on the bank of the river "Sindhu" were called "Hindhu" by the Persian as the pronunciation of “sha” was difficult for them. And the Greeks, maybe after the invasion by Alexander the Great in 327 BC, made it “Indoi” which is evident from Herodotus’ writing. The name India has finally emanated from “Indoi”. The purpose of this reference to history is to drive home a very pertinent point that Hinduism has no origin and in its broad vision used to accept all religions of the world from the tribal totem worship to the formless conceptualization of God postulated by the subsequent structured religions of the world having much more followers worldwide than Hinduism’s near localization. And, unfortunately, the Hindus of the present day world have also fallen prey to parochialism, not knowing the humanitarian message of their genesis.

Einstein in twentieth century held the flag against war which said: “one world or no world” ,which is so aptly an echo of a Sanskrit couplet: “ ayam nijah paroveti, gunanm laghuchetanam, udara charitanamstu, vasuhdheyva kutumbakam”—meaning, parochial people make the distinctions as “mine” and “yours” but the enlightened people consider the whole world as one family.

Similarly, another Sanskrit couplet reads like this: “Sarve bhabhantu sukhino, Sarve shantu niramaya, Sarve bhadrani pashyantu, maa kaschit dukhavabha bhabet”—equally deep in meaning being a great wish for the humanity—let everyone on this planet be happy, let everyone be free from disease and poverty, let everyone shine in his/her countenance and let no one suffer in this world.

I have no clue about the antiquity of these two couplets, but, I can only surmise that they are not less than three thousand years old. These sages had the last say in antiquity about the world family and their well being. Can there be any wish for mankind greater than this?         

And finally, the last few lines of T. S. Eliot’s celebrated poem “Waste Land”, the message for the mankind drawn from Indian philosophy written in Sanskrit:

These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih    shantih    shantih

(Charity, kindness, tolerance, Peace, peace, peace)