I have read some scriptural commentaries of the new age spiritualist celebrities like Sivananda, Jiddu K and Aurobindo. In retrospect it feels that if you have read one, you have read them all.
The problem and tragedy is that the long and endless procession of false and deluded prophets did not begin with these worthies nor will it end with them.
Though Adi Sankara is the pioneer of this kind of gobbledygook that is the subject of slavish imitation by today’s religious charlatans, he is not the first.
If we trail back into early post-vedic history, Jamani (of the Mimansa Sutras ‘infamy’) perhaps started this trend of tortuous and futile speculation into metaphysical fantasies, followed by Badrayana with his Brahmasutras. And what can we say about the cowardly rascals who foisted the Upanishads on our society by hiding behind the fictitious names of Yagnavalkya and Pravahana Javali?
If one again trails back into history, one will find that the trend of meaningless metaphysical speculation of the CE era beginning with Adi Sankara, ended with Vallabhacharya, with the start of Bhakti cult. Bhakti cult though socially regressive and damaging, was a welcome relief from scriptural demagoguery of the Adi Sankara type, with its emphasis on poetry and music, which was culturally very enriching. The end of Bhakti cult in the late 19th century (with the passing away of the musical trinity of South India) brought on the aggressive reversion to the current trend of metaphysical meandering in religious discourse, starting with Vivekananda with now no end in sight.
The excellent opportunity provided by the freedom movement to reinforce rational and liberal social trends was squandered away by leaders like Tilak, Gandhi, Rajaji, Radhakrishnan, who all harked back to medieval and irrational themes of Hindu religion and scriptures and used their learning and reputation to rationalize the irrational.
It is so ironic, yet at every momentous turn of history, India has always taken the wrong step to go back into its dead past.
I have been reading some of Jiddu K's writings.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what part of his writings you were referring to when you say "The problem and tragedy is that the long and endless procession of false and deluded prophets did not begin with these worthies nor will it end with them"