in New York, at a reserve price of US $1,20,000. This, in all likelihood, was the legendary Vrindavani Vastra designed by Sankaradeva shortly before his death in 1568.
Which begs the question “If Sankaradeva’s philosophy is so powerful, why was it confined to Assam for so long?”
The followers of other religious leaders have created works of art to capture their faith’s teachings. Sankaradeva was the only founder of a faith who was also a wide spectrum creative artist in his own right. Seer, social reformer, poet, composer, playwright, musician, choreographer, designer Sankaradeva was a multi-media guru many centuries before the term ‘multi-media’ was coined. He knew that a philosophy kept hidden was a hoarded treasure. Jesus had expressed the same thought when He said “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ...Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works”. It had to reach as many people as possible and people’s tastes and perceptions varied. As did their frames of values.
There are two interesting theories which could explain this. In 1960, British scientist Dr James Lovelock, a consultant with the California Institute of Technology, was struck by the fact that the presence of life results in certain self-regulating changes on earth. These seem to compensate for events that would threaten life and its evolution. He reasoned that the earth is a living organism which nurtures and protects life, forcing it to evolve. Decades earlier, Jesuit priest, philosopher and paleontologist, Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin had said that man will evolve to an encounter with God at what he calls The Omega Point. Based on these two theories, perhaps the all embracing message of Sankaradeva was destined, or programmed, to be spread only when a non-sectarian, global medium, was ready to propagate it.
We tend to divide the achievers of the world into two distinct categories: the ones by logic and reasoning and those motivated by emotion and intuition, the engineers and the artists, the doers and the dreamers. The doers are considered more macho than the dreamers. This is, largely, a western-oriented mind-set, which is being rapidly eroded in spite of the backlash of alarmed patriarchs and confused men brought up in male-dominated societies. Significantly, in the horrendous bus assault case in Delhi, the youngest most egregious offender said that he committed his crime to “Teach her a lesson!” Then there are others who would attribute gender biases, not to socially sanctioned attitudes but, to the inherent structure of the human brain. They believe that the left half of the brain is the logical side and the right is the intuitive or, by implication, the masculine side and the feminine side! But then, clearly, it would stand to reason that any person who could cultivate both halves of the brain would be markedly superior to the half-brainers. So if Sankaradeva’s religious discipline develops both the engineer and the artist in his followers, both the masculine and the feminine sides then, surely, this is the most appropriate path for the evolution of Homo sapiens? In fact, as technological advances diminish the need for the bulging muscles of males the glass ceiling erected by beleaguered men is being shattered. We are not neurobiologists so we cannot speak with authority on the human brain, but we find Sankaradeva’s philosophy in powerful sync with such beliefs.
Such a medium is the IT revolution’s World Wide Web
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Some Internet Resources on Srimanta Sankaradeva www.atributetosankaradeva.org www.sankaradeva.com www.srimanta.net Facebook group – “Followers of Srimanta Sankaradeva” Facebook group – “Srimanta Sankaradeva Movement”
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