Renaissance of India

RENAISSANCE

Renaissance of India is to create awareness among the people about the greatness of ancient Vedic scriptures, civilization, philosophy, spirituality, social, moral and human values under the influence of Hindu religion's traditional rituals in the classical styles. Besides igniting the minds of the younger generation into patriotism, nationalism and heroism in their hearts, encouraging them to study Vedic texts and endeavour for regeneration of past glory demonstrating to the world about vision and mission of our ancient seers; their view of the reality, nature, universe, life and goals. They should appeal to the western religious leaders to understand, appreciate and rethink in the direction of Indian thought by making them to study the Vedic scriptures in different fields, creating interest to Work together with spirit of cooperation for promotion of universal peace, harmony and spiritual enlightenment of the people of the world.

Earlier Renaissance:

According to Swami Ranganathananda, earlier renaissance of India can be attributed to the appearance in the person of Sri Krishna who synthesised the varied religious thoughts of the age in the light of Vedanta and gave through his immortal Bhagavatgita- the song of Celestial, a message of practical spirituality, breaking the barriers of caste, class and sex. Sri Krishna made Vedanta the property of the Indian people as a whole and silenced for a time the conflict of Sects and Castes through his message of unity and tolerance. Krishna became the personal inspirer of much mysticism, poetry, religion and philosophy of later ages of Indian history. He said that god will incarnate himself whenever the world needs him.

However the creature impulse of the original movement seems to have been lost in the flow of time. Materialism with higher classes and superstition of the common people gained ascendancy while the intellectuals indulged in barren speculation; religious aspirants indulged in meaningless asterism.

The next great renaissance of the Indian spirit was achieved with bhagavan Buddha at its centre and this renaissance not only energized India vertically and horizontally but also energized practically the whole continent of Asia.

Preceptors and saints are born from time to time to remind people of their divine heritage and guide along the spiritual path. With spiritual awakening one sees the ultimate reality as the integrating and connecting thread of universe creating realization that god is one, cosmos is one and humankind is one with spirit of universal love for unity of all.

European renaissance set the stage for conflict between science and religion, where it has grown into the reformation and finally into enlightenment with Lutheran inspired reformation in 16th century. It helped religion to make peace with science. Christianity had to accommodate reason in order to survive.

Renaissance in India started 300 years after European Renaissance. As a matter of fact a strong movement like veera shaiva movement was started earlier in 12th century to reject caste and untouchability in Karnataka by Basavanna i.e., a deeply felt need of the backward classes against the domination of the priests in the temples. In the later centuries the bhakti movement was also a part of the same epoch - a milder version with anti Brahmin element and rejection of orthodox practices that was part of the socio-cultural life of India.

Swami Vivekananda spearheaded the nation for its awakening and resurgence of human values, spirituality, reminding man's inherent divinity and called for rejuvenating their mind and  emphasized that "Every religion has to adapt their own methodology through their understanding of god, nature, universe and man'. He said "modern science is the manifestation of real religious spirit for it seeks to understand the truth by sincere efforts".

Among other pioneers of Indian renaissance is Raja Rammohan Roy of Brahma samaj in 1828 in Kolkata, Sri Keshabchandrasen, Sri Debendrenath Tagore, Sri Prashant chandrasen, Sri Mahalanabis Were prominent Brahmasamajis who played significant role in teaching vedas and upanishads.

Sri R.G. Bhandarkar and Sri M.G. Ranade founded prarthana samaj in Bombay in 1867 which preached Worship of one god and tried to free religion from various social evils like caste system and dominance of priests.

Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswathi founded Arya samaj in 1875 to move the Hindu dharma away from all fictious beliefs and to go back to the teachings of Vedas with the slogan- "Krishnavanto Vishwam Aryam" i.e., make this world noble.

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) eloquently interpreted the basic concepts of the Hindu dharma and expounded the yoga philosophy for transformation of human consciousness.

Sri Rabindranath Tagore (1841-1941) noble laurete expounded theupanishidic philosophythrough his songs in Gitanjali.

Inspired by hindu philosophy and vedic scriptures, Madam H.P. Blavatsky and colonel H.S. Olcott came to India from USA and established The Theosophical society with its headquarters at Chennai. They founded the Hindu college, present Hindu university-Benares along with Mrs. Annie Beasant.

Satya sodak Samaj founded by Jyoti Rao Phule in Poona (1873) with the object of ascertaining the worth of human beings irrespective of his birth in a particular caste. He started school of untouchables in Poona.

Acharya Ramdev, Swami Shradhanada, Pt. Gurudatt Vidyarthi and Lala Lajapathi Rai made incessant efforts to remind people of their glorious past.

The Dravida Kazhagam in Tamilnadu: The JanaParipalana Sabha in Kerala emerged out of the anguish of oppressed sections and stood for abolition of caste and Superstitions based on religious Sanctions.

Swami Sivananda Saraswati started "Divine Life Society" to spread Vedic spiritual wisdom and established" Yoga Vedanta Forest University" at Hrishikesh.

Stalwarts of various fields are pointers to the richness of Vedic contents and inspire us to know more about Vedic knowledge and spiritual wisdom,

Gandhiji’s message of truth, love and non-violence more relevant today than ever, reflecting the Vedic religious precepts, spirituality and humanity.

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnaan – philosopher interpreted the classical Hindu philosophy in the context of the modern world through his numerous scholarly works like Hindu views of Life.

Several spiritual, cultural and yoga institutions made sincere efforts to spread the knowledge of Vedic scriptures for efficient realization of vision of swami Vivekananda and made investments on many fronts like-

1. Sanskrit Research and ideology

2. Cross cultural forum for knowledge dissemination;

3. Preserving the Indian philosophical knowledge, dissemination of traditions

4. To unravel Indian hidden and lost knowledge on traditions by extensive research in Sanskrit;

5. Principles of Sanskrit grammar in collaboration with university of Hyderabad and International Institute of Information Technology;

6. Preservation and digitization of Sanskrit manuscript and Sanskrit courses offered online;

7. Vedanta and Sankrit courses offered online

8. Sri Vedanta Bharati Vedic knowledge;- a public charitable trust at Hyderabad is doing yeoman service to spread the Vedic knowledge.

9. Mitra movement in education founded by sadhu Vaswani- for character building, spiritual awakening and service modeling. Sadguru jaggi vasudev-Mata Amritanadamayi-Pyramid spiritual society of India by Brahmarsh Patriji.

Sri Ramakrihna mission started in 1897 stands as a bridge between east and west; present and past; science and spirituality; pundits and public.

Swami Chinmayananda, Yogeshwarananda, Ramdev Baba, Satya Saibaba have devoted their life for the resurgence of India.

Over the past 150 years great changes are seen in the thinking of the people.

Hindu Dharmacharya sabhas are organised to bring more awareness of Vedic culture, spirituality and Hindu dharma especially in making the river Ganga clean; ban on cow slaughter; against Conversions; temple autonomies, renovation of temples and spread the message of sanatana dharma.

The governments have established endowment departments in all states in India.

Babu Jagjivan Ram National Foundation was established by the ministry of social justice and empowerment by government of India in 2006; with the objective of establishing a Casteless and classless society and eradication of untouchability; social justice for dalits and backward classes.

21st century has witnessed in the institutions of spirituality, meditation, vedantic philosophy and yoga. World spiritual networking site has been established by the Times of India to interact directly with master seekers. India has become a world class destination.