March 2020
Editorial
The Vedanta Kesari
10
R
Vedantic Secularism
ecently when The Vedanta Kesari volunteers approached a private educational institution offering the ‘VK for Students Scheme’, the principal quickly dismissed the proposal as unbefitting the ‘secular’ credentials of her institution. The free offer, which is for students from class 10 to degree college, requires the class teacher to recognise every month a boy and a girl who manifest noble characteristics like honesty, selflessness, self-control, and service, and gift them each a copy of The Vedanta Kesari. But the principal saw this gift as promotion of a religious ideology and therefore an unsecular activity. Behind the Principal’s ‘secularist’ stance lies two reasons. The first is the unfortunate influence of the West where the academia largely rejected religion as unscientific thinking and mere rigid dogmas. But it should be noted that in our land, right from the Vedic times, religion has been upheld not as a finished dogma, but as “a method and a means to pierce the veil that hides the ever-present meaning and mystery of existence.” This religious approach encompasses all dimensions of life, all fields of knowledge. The Mundaka Upanishad declares that for a total understanding and development of life at the physical, mental, and moral levels, man should cultivate two kinds of knowledge – the para vidya or the supreme knowledge that unveils the eternal Truth behind the manifest life, and the apara vidya or the ordinary knowledge dealing with scriptures and all the sciences and arts of the perishable manifest world. Again, of the two vidyas, apara or Brahma vidya occupies the primary position because it is sarva-vidya-pratistha, the basis of all secular knowledge. The second reason behind the ‘secularist’ rejection of religion in education, is that being a
multi-religious country we cannot allow any one particular religion to shape the character of our children. Also, allowing all religions to have a say is not possible because they bring contradictory values and ideals. Indeed, no faith – which insists that its doctrines are the only true ones; which believes that those who do not believe in its doctrines will go to some terrible place; which even draws the sword to compel others to believe as it says; which demands that its God be accepted as the Supreme, – should have any say in the 21st century education system.
But we are talking about Vedanta, the Universal Religion based on universal principles of life. Vedanta is a system of knowledge which is marked by a scientific spirit – a critical and bold inquiry into Truth made with objectivity and precision, and welcoming the challenge of verification. Vedanta is the pursuit of a unified vision and experience of life which naturally leads to spiritual growth within and social productivity and peace in the world outside.
If the State does not actively support and impart this Vedantic view of life in education and in the functioning of public institutions, a large number of our rapidly increasing population will grow up with a fundamentalist mind-set. They can at best only rise to the level of toleration, which is but only a mild form of violence. We should remember that our traditions and value system are rooted in the pursuit of para vidya. Neglecting this spiritual tradition and denying it to our younger generation, will make us untrue to the growth of our civilisation since ages, and will only result in individual and social moral degeneration. For a deeper understanding of this topic see page 16 of this issue.
