By 2000 BC, the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the most important stages in human social development, was on the verge of collapse, with its most important cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, on the verge of collapse. DNA studies from northern and northwestern India suggest that early Sanskrit speakers migrated to the Indian subcontinent after the Indus Valley Civilization. Studies conducted at Harappa and Mohenjo Daro have shown that there were no religions or gods during the Indus Valley Civilization.
The Indian subcontinent was a major center of material knowledge, as were Babylonia and Egypt at the time. Gautama Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira promoted the idea of equality of all human beings, disregarding the Brahminical caste system that separated people on the basis of birth, and its ideological foundations, such as belief in gods and other superstitions. By the 600s B.C., many thinkers and schools of thought based on materialistic knowledge had emerged in various parts of the world.
There are two main worldviews for humans. Then, now, and forever!
1. Materialism
2. Idealism
2. Idealism mainly rests on three things.
a) The material world is dependent on the spiritual.(That is, the real world/universe depends on some supernatural force)
b) The spirit, or mind, or idea, exists separately from matter. (The most extreme of this argument is subjective idealism, which argues that no matter exists, but that everything is pure illusion.)
c) Beyond or behind what can be discovered and known through sensation, experience, and science, there exists a mysterious and unknown realm.
1. Materialism essentially says three things:
a) Materialism teaches that the world is material in nature, that everything that exists is based on material causes, and that arises and delevops/destructs according to the laws of motion of the matter.
b) Materialism states that matter (the objective world) is an objective reality that exists outside and independently of the mind; in contrast to the idea that the mind exists separately from matter, everything mental or spiritual is a product of material processes (the activities of the brain).
c) Materialism teaches that it is possible to know about the world and its laws, and that there is much that may not be known in the material world (universe), but that there is no realm of unknown reality beyond the material world.
This is explained briefly to understand that we all have a worldview and it can be one of these two. This can vary by tradition and society. There are complete materialists, but no one can live completely in idealism, especially in this day and age. We can carry idealism with us more or less.
The worldview of religions belongs to idealism and the society in the name of gods also.
The social life principles of Buddha and Mahavira are based on materialism.
The Indian subcontinent has a history of a materialistic worldview that flourished through many names, including Kapila, Kanada, Charvaka, Ajivakas, Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara, Charaka, Susruta, Vatsyayana, and many others.
For almost a thousand years, under the dominance of this materialistic worldview, the Indian subcontinent was a leading center of rational thought and humanism in the world.
Nalanda, Takshashila, and Vikramashila are all examples of this. It was the Idealism of Shankaracharya and others that destroyed these ways of thinking and worldviews. The Indian subcontinent was then led to a society based on Brahminical caste system and countless superstitions. Centers of knowledge like Nalanda were burned down (it was the Brahmins here, not Bhaktiyar Khilji who ruined Nalanda).
In Osho's words, Buddhism was thrown out of the Indian subcontinent, and Buddhist monks were burned to death. (The Malayalam word 'kazhuveri' is derived from the 'kazhuveti stones', a particular stone which were used to chop Buddhists by hanging them).
With the end of the worldview of Buddha, Mahavira, Aryabhata, Bhaskara, Charaka, and Susruta, the subcontinent was immersed in mantras, tantras, pujas, idolatry, caste discrimination, and misogyny.
Islam and Christianity came to the subcontinent. They showed fraternity and humanity towards the majority people who were not even treated as animals here. Apart from economic and power discrimination, Islam and Christianity brought some relief to the majority of people in India who were not even treated as animals under Brahmin rule.
Jyotibha Phule, his wife Savitribai Phule, Narayana Guru, Periyar, and Ayyankali were all people who had the opportunity to speak and work for their fellow beings only because they were under British rule!
Today is the 200th birth centenary of Jyotibha Phule.
The Constitution that India received under the leadership of the great Ambedkar was actually uprooted the Brahminical system on Indian soil to an extent. However, in the form of a cultural organization, Hitler's Nazi German model and Mussolini's Italian fascist model have been combined with the Indian Brahminical system and formed Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1925 and its parliamentary Political form called Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980. Our country has been under their rule since 2014.
In the name of precisely written Muslim and Christian alienation, they are using a word that was used to address the people of the subcontinent by the ancient Iranian people, to subvert the Constitution and establish dominance in society, while subtly maintaining the caste system.
Some Indian citizens who are ignorant of world history, living under the protection of the Constitution, are playing the fool by getting caught up in the propaganda of the RSS and BJP, and pretending that it is because the Hindu majority here and they are Hindus that there are no religious laws in public places and in the lives of the people, which are not seen in other religiously based countries.
Jyotibha Phule's life and human-oriented activities are always a guide for us in exposing the cultural and political forms of society based on Manusmriti!
Buddha, Mahavira, Kapila, Kanada, Charvaka, Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara, Charaka, Susruta, Vatsyayana, Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Narayana Guru, Periyar, Ayyankali, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, B.R. Ambedkar etc are the pearls in the necklace of materialism in the subcontinent, mentioned earlier!
No comments:
Post a Comment