What transpires in the next few passages is, more than anything, a disclaimer.

It is a disclaimer for all those who have remained cynical about the defensive initiatives launched by a handful of well-meaning, bright and proud Indic men and women, in an attempt to safeguard the remnants of their cultural legacy. This is no small task, and it asks for no less than a cultural resurgence. It is, at the same time, a disclaimer intended to those who will preside over such a resurgence. The culture in question is that of an open-minded inquiry into the nature and purpose of being, of human existence; an inquiry so profound that it ended up singularly characterizing an otherwise vast and diverse civilisation – the Indic civilisation. The uniqueness of that civilisation is that it never was an expansionist one, and still its impact resonated all over the varied lands and seas lying between the deserts of Persia and the isles of Japan. History bears testimony to that fact. But why so? Because that civilisation alone articulated the highest of all human aspirations in the best possible way. What is that aspiration? To know the essence of human nature, to get to the deepest level of existence, to find meaning in it all. The Indic civilisation produced beacons – not one, but several of them, over and over again – to not just theorize the Truth, but to actually live it, to demonstrate it through their own firsthand experiences. Hence such an impact. Hence such longevity – enabling the Indic civilisation to maintain a long and continuous (although greatly truncated) living existence – while its contemporaries are now to be found only in libraries and museums.

And yet, the Indic civilisation is in danger. Doubtless, it has been vulnerable to malevolent forces in the past, as any great achievement of humanity has been, but there are good reasons to believe that the magnitude of the danger it faces today is unprecedented. This is so because all of its enemies have joined hands at some level or the other. Thus, the danger is, despite what many of the who’s who of media and academia will tell you, highly imminent and grave. Our cherished civilisation, which we have together inherited from the hands of our ancestors, faces many formidable enemies at the moment: foreign expansionist religions, aggressively imperialist cultures and strange ideologies – all of which have unfortunately won over many millions of our own, and they continue to wage a ceaseless war on the remaining. The situation for our civilisation is very similar to the predicament of the fictional population of Westeros from the Game of Thrones: should the Westerosis lose any of their own to the deadly and aggressive White Walkers, should any of their soldiers, men, women, children or beasts die at the hand of the monsters, they become the foot soldiers of the Night King. They join the ranks of the very aggressors who had defeated and killed them in the first place. So with the fallen folks from various Indic communities: the moment they abandon their Indic fold to embrace a foreign faith/ideology, they are somehow filled to the brim with all-consuming hatred towards the Indic people and Indic ways of life. Thus, the enemies of the Indic civilisation keep increasing their strength exponentially by preying on an ancient people and turning them against their own brethren.

And yet, these foreign nihilist cultures and ideologies, these power-monger nouveau-emperors, or these fanatic priests are but secondary threats to our civilisation. They have always been lurking over the horizon, and perhaps they will forever keep hovering at the threshold; trying to find and push through the smallest breach appearing on the wall, to intrude on our civilisation’s cultural-geographical territory and run us down. They are real. They are not imaginary – not by any stretch of the imagination. But the primary threats are within us. Those threats manifest subtly, but significantly, in the form of false pride, misinformation, and sometimes, abject ignorance. Together, they make us vulnerable to the secondary threats. They are like the harmful organisms that weaken our immunity, exposing us to the threats of fatal raids by foreign bodies. Our ancestors had identified them all, they had rightly categorised their prevalence as ushering in adharma. Rāvaṇa’s and Duryodhana’s characters – both of whom were born in noble and highly respected families – have copiously portrayed this point in our great epics. Faith in one's identity, which has been passed on by one’s ancestors, faith in their gigantic achievements in every field of human pursuit, most of all faith in one's own conviction – śraddhā – are the basic steps to win a war. These help fortify the mind and body from the provocations of the a-dharmic tendencies. Moreover, while it is important to have faith, it is crucial to have wisdom. Wisdom may not necessarily follow from the pursuit of knowledge, but one can certainly advance enormously in the path of wisdom by seeking knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge helps the human mind stay sharp as a fine razor's edge, and as open as a spacious window. Wisdom only enters such minds which are alert and open.

And yet, wisdom is not enough. We also need to have a heart which is as generous as that of the Buddha. While it is important to observe that victimhood is a mischievous construct, which is mostly manufactured and peddled by those who may gain the most – politically – by selling it to the naive, it is equally essential to note that victims are not manufactured. They are real – not one or two of them, but millions. They live out such harsh realities that may put the entire humanity to dire shame. Victims usually tend to suffer from resentment towards the cause of their unfortunate experiences, and for understandable reasons. After all, not everybody is a Satyakāma Jābāla, neither is everyone a Gautama. If we do not recognize that, if we overzealously condone corruption and meanness and bestiality in our temples – as in our homes – as hallowed customs, then we will only provide more fuel to the fire of already existing historical resentments. That would inevitably lead to an increase in the number of foot soldiers in today’s White Walkers’ Indian variety of the army of the dead, won’t it? You may ask: where to draw the line between tradition and corrupt practices? Well, doesn’t that sound like a worthy conundrum to chew on for a while? When real problems present themselves before us, ought we to not rise to the occasion and resolve them as our brilliant dharmaśāstrakāra-s once did – without settling for quick and counterproductive solutions like government intervention, without allowing self-deceiving blindness to misguide us? Have we fallen so far and deep into the abyss of self-pity that we cannot pull off another Baudhāyana? Have we become so fixated on mediocrity? Have we completely exhausted the sources of our legendary Indian creativity?

These are difficult questions, which we must be ready to confront. We must be able to provide ourselves with the answers – each and every one of us. Therefore, it becomes our sacred duty to keep our eyes open, our heads level and our discernment astute as we patrol the battlefields of ideas and narratives. May we not fall victim to the arrogance that is bred by ignorance. May we not become impatient in the face of unceasing offences heaved at us. May we not misjudge hypocrisy and corruption as sanctified high traditions. Asato mā sadgamaya. Dhīyo yo naḥ pracodayāt. Aum.

Image Credits: By Anhilwara [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons