By Kollengode S Venkataraman Written in 2003
Throughout its unrecorded and recorded history, India has given a long lineage of teachers who injected refreshing ideas whenever society got bogged down in excesses in rituals and dogma. History bears this out even though many among us axiomatically believe in the opposite.
The Upanishad teachers broke away from agamas that bound people with endless propitiatory and compensatory rituals and showed the way for people to realize their spiritual identities by intuition and effort.
Vardhamana Mahavir and Gautama the Buddha (5th and 6th century CE) rejected the authority of the Vedas and the priests who thought they “owned” the Vedas, and developed their systems based on karma and self-effort.
The early Tamil Bhakti poets in sixth century AD and later were the first among the “vernacular” poets of India who rose against the Sanskrit/Brahminical orthodoxy of their times, and made Godhead within the grasp of all across the entire caste spectrum.
Shankara (eighth century AD) rejected the emphasis on rituals and arcane dogma as seen in his Viveka Choodamani (Crest Jewel of Discernment). Though he formalized the idea of a personal deity (Saguna Brahman), he recognized that personal deities are only tangible manifestations of the Nirguna Brahman (the Divine Being beyond attributes).
Basaveshwara (11th century) in the Karnataka-Andhra area spoke against ritualism and caste stratifications that afflicted people. His idea of God, represented by the abstract image of Linga, transcends all man-made attributes and comes close to Shankara’s Nirguna Brahman.
Centuries later, Guru Nanak (15th century) spoke in a similar vein in Punjab using the idiom of his language and the social, historical, and political context and conflicts of his time.
Ramanuja (11th century) was another Free Spirit along this line as we see in the following story confirmed from many sources:
After his great-grandfather Alavandar’s demise, Ramanuja became a sannyasi (monk). To complete his studies, Ramanuja went to Tirukkottiyur Nambi, who initially refused to accept him. Ramanuja went to Nambi several times again with the same purpose. But Nambi turned him away each time. Finally, seeing Ramanuja’s persistence, Nambi relented and took him as his disciple.
At the end of the teaching, Nambi taught Ramanuja a sacred mantra and told him, “You can transmit this mantra only to the most distinguished among your disciples, and not to others.
“Swamy, what is the benefit of this mantra?’
“By mentally reciting the mantra daily, you can realize moksha (release from the bondages of life).”
“But if I reveal it to others, what will happen?”
“Misfortune would strike you.”
Next day, Ramanuja climbed to the top of a gopuram (tower) of the temple in Tirukkottiyur and gathered the villagers under the tower. Then he loudly recited the secret and sacred mantra for all to hear!
Ramanuja’s guru Nambi chided him for revealing the mantra to all.
Ramanuja replied, “Swamy, I only wanted the whole world to benefit from this mantra, so that you become their benefactor, even if I am going to face misfortunes in life.”
Ramanuja went on to live a full life, established his school based on devotion and surrender, and passed away when he was 120 years old. Similar stories abound in Hinduism and Sikhism — for that matter, in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well. Jesus and Mohammed are rebels by the standards of their time — even by today’s standards.
But the irony is, no matter what reformers at different epochs come and tell us, eventually mankind gets mired in rituals and dogma again and again. How does this happen? We can only speculate:
People of extraordinary intellect, courage, and insight into human predicaments have appeared in all societies throughout history.
They spend a great deal of time searching for the abiding ideas that sustain mankind. These Seekers of Truth, after their long, lonely struggles (Gautama struggled for over two decades before becoming the Buddha) get deeper insights into our conditions. They articulate their ideas using the idioms and imagery of their times that resonate well with people who found institutions around their masters’ teachings.
After the time of these great masters — the Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, Mohammed, Shankara, Ramanuja, Nanak, Vivekananda, or Gandhi — people who succeed them are no match for their masters’ intellect, insight, courage, or even charisma. Lacking substance, they cling to their masters’ forms in the honest belief that adhering to forms would eventually lead them to their substance. But it rarely happens.
With the passing of the organizational mantle further down the generational line, religious organizations inevitably get more disengaged from the spirit of the teachings of their original masters. One effective way to continue to influence their now-expanded numbers of followers is to build dogma and theology around the teachings of their founders; better still is to build myths around them, who, by now, have been deified already, as we see in every religion, Christianity included.
Once we reach this stage, religious organizations become unresponsive to changes in society. They become “traditional,” or “orthodox,” without realizing that their original masters were all rebels in their times. This is one of the great ironies in the history of religions.
Luckily for Man, another Free Spirit comes along, and the cycle repeats all over again. Yada yada hi dharmasya……… (Whenever injustice rises in society, I make myself appear again to restore justice and order – the Gita). END