The land Immersed in Knowledge
- Bharat as this land was called means ‘The land immersed in Knowledge’ or ‘The land riding on Knowledge’. Bharathiyata is a harmonious blend of Physical, Mental, Intellectual, Socio-Economical, Cultural, Aesthetic and Spiritual way of leading life that was adopted by the people of Bharat.
- The Europeans called this land India, the Moghuls and the Sultans called it Hindhusthan. Bharat is the rightful name of this land as this land has always led the world from the ‘darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge’ ‘Thamasoma Jyothirgamaya’.
Bharat as this land was called means ‘The land immersed in Knowledge’ or ‘The land riding on Knowledge’. This is from Bha meaning Knowledge and Rath meaning immersed in or riding on. ‘India’ is actually a name which has evolved from a phonetic mistake the Persians made. They used to refer to the people beyond the river ‘Indhu’ as ‘Indi’ whereas the name of the river itself was ‘Sindhu’ and not ‘Indhu’ or ‘Indus’ as the Europeans referred to it and this land was called India by the British. Before that the Mughals and Sultans called this land as Hindusthan. Bharat is the rightful name of this land as this land has always led the world from the ‘darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge’ ‘Thamasoma Jyothirgamaya’.
Sanatana Dharma
The way of life people led here was known as ‘Dharma’. It was not an organised religion like any other religions or ‘Isms’ which originated from One Person or One God concept. Dharma was evolved from the essence of the knowledge and experience of the Rishis (Sages or Seers) of this land and guided by the law of the Universe. Since this Dharma was based on the eternal human values this Dharma started being referred to as ‘Sanathan Dharma’, the life based on the practice of eternal and universal principles of human values. This Dharma was built upon the four pillars which became the Chathurvidha Phala Purushartha four-fold purpose of life ‘Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha’.
‘Dharma’ in simple terms can be understood as leading a life with a purpose of practicing the eternal human values in accordance with your innate nature, leading to a peaceful co-existence and collective upliftment of the society as a whole.
‘Artha’ can be understood as leading a life to establish economic equality among fellow humans through Socio-Economic activity. Artha is one of Uplaksha (Sub-purpose) of life which needs to be fulfilled in accordance to Dharma.
‘Kama’ can be understood in simple terms as living a life to attain aesthetic excellence in confluence with nature, fulfilment of one’s desires in accordance to Dharma and also to procreate with a purpose of continuing Dharma.
‘Moksha’ can be understood as to live a life which leads to unification with the whole creation (and not liberation as usually misunderstood) which is the ultimate purpose of life. This also meant to dissolve with the Universal Divinity which people may choose to call as God or any other name or choose not to believe.
To achieve the above purpose people lived in a Samaja. This term used for society ‘Samaja’ was born more out of equality ‘Samatha’ rather than any social obligation as in any other society. The term for civilization was ‘Sabhyatha’ a confluence of ‘Sabhya’ people (people who know how to present themselves in the society not by force or law but by nature) living together for practice of Dharma or achieve a society practicing human values in accordance with one’s innate nature.
Parampara
The ‘traditions’ followed were called ‘Parampara’ which actually means eternal (Param) value which is beyond the known (Para). We will throw more light on this in our program. The local people used ‘Gnyana’ knowledge which is actually the philosophy understood through Darshanas, ‘Vignyana’ for all spiritual and philosophical understanding, ‘Bhoutha Shastra’ science which is actually the understanding of philosophy in the physical world this was learnt and propagated through Shastras and ‘Tantragnyana’ technology which is the applied Bhautha Shastra to create instrument/s to enhance the quality of living rather than for comfort. ‘Tantragnyana’ was in the hands of the Artisan class or the ‘Karigar’. Later on in our workshops we shall elaborate these things further.
Healthcare Systems
Physical, Mental and Social Health was of utmost importance for achieving the Purusharthas. To achieve this the Rishis of Bharat devised Ayurveda and Siddha, two of the oldest health care systems of the world. Ayurveda and Siddha include health care, medicine and lifestyle interventions for maintaining health and achieving the Purusharthas. They have medicines made out of more than one million whole herbs, roots, tree barks, leaves, fruits, vegetables, seeds, oils, plants, shrubs, plant stems, animal sources, minerals and metals too. The ‘Panchakarma Chikitsa’ is one of the oldest treatment regimens which have been practiced in a consistent manner for over a few thousand years.
Architecture
The greatness of Bharathiya Shilp (Architecture and Civil Engineering) is very well known world over. People even today wonder how the ancient Indians built such wonders! Many of the living monuments are a few thousand years old. Dwarakadeesh Temple Dwarka 100 BC, The Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam 600 AD, Virupaksha temple Hampi 700 AD, Kailasa Temple Ellora 800 AD, Kumbheswara Temple Kumbhakonam 800 AD, Ambarnatha Temple Mumbai 1010 AD and Brihadeshwara Temple Tanjaore 1010 AD are some of them.The Shilpakars (Complete Architects) of Bharat knew the art of making Gare/Chuna Mortar (Mixture of Limestone, Sand and many more things for binding in construction) even before anybody in the world knew about it.
Arthabeing one of the Chaturvidha Phala Purushartha was an important instrument of life in Bharat. Chanakya Arthashastra was one of the oldest treatises on Economy; Artha Shastra consists of Neethi-Statecraft (not Political Science), Arthvyavastha-Socio-Economic policy, Udhayama-Business, Vanijya-Commerce, Vyapara-Trade, Kararopana Neethi-Taxation Policy and Sainya Rachana Vidhya-Military Strategy. To achieve the Upalaksha of Artha he had devised a very unique Samajik-Artha Vyavastha Socio-Economic structure. This put Bharat at the top of the economic table at number one position in the world, from 0001 AD to 1700 AD. During this time Bharat was contributing anywhere from 33% to 38% of the world GDP. This is a researched fact published in the book ‘The world economic history – A millennium perspective’ by Angus Maddison printed in 2010. Bharat didn’t have a Currency system of Economy till the late 1800s and it had a much evolved system than “Barter” system, it was not called “Gift-Economy” either. The Artha Vyavastha of Bharat was called “Aadan-Pradaan Artha Vyavastha” meaning “Profer and Receive Economy”. More on this will be elaborated in the workshop on Artha Vyavastha.
Education System
Bharat had a very unique Education System which was for life and not for livelihood. Even before the implementation of the Macaulay schools Bharat had 6,00,000+ “schools” across this country of 6,00,000 villages. It also had 108 Viharas or Universities for Higher Education Varanasi, Takshashila, Naalanda, Nagarjuna, Valiyashala, Melukote are a few examples. Gurukuls, Acharaya Kulams, Veda Pattashalas, Agama Pattashalas and Viharas have been the mainstream units of education in Bharat. 100% of people living in Bharat were “Educated” not just literate and most of them could read, write and communicate in a minimum of three languages. Bharat was probably one of those few countries which had so many numbers of educated and highly literate people. For more on this you can attend our workshop on Bharathiya Shiksha Vyavastha and refer the book “The Beautiful Tree” by Shri Dharampalji.
Samskaras
Other than being educated the people of Bharat were by far the most cultured and civilised in the world. This was because the people of Bharat followed certain procedures which were called ‘Samskaras’ the people who went through these in their lifetime were called ‘Samskari’ people with Sabhya Samskara cultured repetitive behaviour. During a lifetime a person had to undergo 23 Samskaras and conduct 21 Yagnas and 5 daily Mahayagnas totalling to about 49 Samskaras for men and 52 Samskaras for women. This made the people most cultured Sabhya and the society the most Samskari civilised as they had to interact with many people from different Jathis and Varnas during the conduct of these. We shall be throwing more light on this in our workshop on Samskaras.
The life was very vibrant and colourful with local flavours changing and enhancing it much more every 50kms, each of these areas were called mahajanapadas and Janapadas. There were 56 Mahajanapadas and 108 Janapadas of this land thus we can find 108 cultures living in harmony. The culture ‘Samskrithi’ actually meant that which is followed by Samskari ‘Cultured’ people. It was this Sanskrithi which tied people of diverse regions with a single common thread. I shall attempt to bring out why Bharat has “Unity in diversity” in the program on Samskriti.
Bharat is a land of eternal spiritual knowledge, material abundance, diverse cultures, many languages and dialects, multiple cuisines, unique ethnic wares, intricate architecture, manifold agricultural produce, myriad climatic and geographical zones and many more. Yet in this diversity there is a silent, unwritten, unique common thread. At the outset it looks too complicated and difficult to understand; yet it is very simple as there was “Unity in the Diversity”. This was so as the life was very vibrant and colourful with local flavours changing and enhancing it much more every 50kms, each of these areas were called by various nomenclatures according to the geographical zones. There were 56 Mahajanapadas and 108 Janapadas of this land thus we can find 108 cultures living in harmony. The culture ‘Samskrithi’ actually meant that which is followed by Samskari ‘Cultured’ people. It was this Sanskrithi which tied people of diverse regions with a single common thread. We shall bring out why Bharat has “Unity in the Diversity” in our program on Samskriti.
Festivals
Life was made even more interesting and colourful by introducing festivals Parvas every month according to the season. There were as much as 33 festivals celebrated in 12 months. There was a huge dose of Vrathas (Stringently adhered personalised vows) added for harnessing the spiritual strength and energy. People practiced Adhyatma (Spirituality) not by force or choice but as second nature. We shall bring out a brief understanding of this during the program and in detail in follow-up workshops.
Bharathiyatha is the entire above plus much more; it was a way of life that was lived by the people in this part of the world Bharathavarsha – Bharahakhanda which gave Social-Economical-Cultural-Aesthetic-Spiritual completeness to everybody in accordance with the eternal principles of human values at the same time being true to their innate nature. The people here lived in harmony with Prakriti (Nature) and maintained a proper Prakriti Santhulan (Ecological Balance) maintaining aesthetic fineness as well as technical excellence. They found a perfect balance of all this.
There are three more very interesting facts about this country Bharat (Though we can list a million!).
- Though this country ruled the economy, technology and many other fields; Bharat never attacked any other country in the history of mankind.
- Bharat never sent any Emissary or Missionaries to any other country/ies to ‘Convert’ people to Dharma way of life in the history of mankind.
- Bharat accepted and embraced every Religion of the world hence they all exist peacefully even today in this country.
We were the most civilised, cultured, spiritual and most abundant country in the world yet we were the most peaceful.
The whole life itself was complete as it was based on:
Om Poornamadh Poornamidham I Poornath Poornamudhachathe II
Poornasya Poornamaadaya I Poornameva Vashisyathe II
Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi II
Om, That is complete, This is complete, From the completeness comes the completeness I
If completeness is taken away from completeness, Only completeness remains II
Om let there be Peace, Peace, Peace II
In this way of life, nothing would look too much or too less by its existence or non-existence. Everything was complete by its own and there was no scope of lack or boredom with the way of life called Bharathiyata.
As it was complete it covered all aspects of life. Hence to cover all aspects it is not possible by one person or a small team so we need a bigger team/group which will help us in this endeavour. Here on this website we have tried to bring out most of the various aspects of life and we are only introducing these topics. These introductions will later be expanded to best of our knowledge in the workshops, lectures and other programs. We request people who read/attend workshops to collaborate and contribute to this effort as all of this knowledge was available in the “Open Source” format even in the ancient times and it was enhanced by interventions by wise people and wisdom from all sides.
Ano bhadra krtavo yanthu vishwataha II
Let noble thoughts come from all directions II
– Rig Veda 1.89.1
