Yoga and Ayurveda Together for a New Indic World Order
- In Current Affairs
- 01:09 PM, Apr 13, 2022
- Dr. Bal Ram Singh
The Narrative of Current World Order
World orders have been norms over the millennia, both in Eastern and Western parts of the world. In a recent article in Washington Post, Fareed Zachariah, a TV commentator of Indian origin, opines, “If political order is rare, liberal political order is rarer still. Liberal democracy is the Goldilocks form of government. It needs a state that is strong enough to govern effectively but not so strong that it crushes the liberties and rights of its people.
The Problem and the Potential
A vast collection of practical knowledge that originated and practiced over millennia in India and rest of the world has remained obstruse to the intellectuals and scholars of modern time, in part because there are such a group of people within India and also that of the Indian origin in the West who have remained idle, either because of idle of mind or because of the inundation of the westernized education.
India’s Dharmic traditions have stark contrasts with the philosophical framework of the western world, where, for example, God creates the world in contrast Brahm within, or prescriptive religious dictates in the west vs. subscriptive dharmic kartavya. These approaches have tendencies to appears all spheres of life.
According to Ryan Crocker, a former American ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan, “If we emerge from Ukraine with the narrative being that a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a united Europe, were able to face down Putin, and “we move forward to deal with the inevitable challenges ahead from a position of unity and American leadership”. On the other hand, if Russia takes over most or all of Ukraine and Putin remains largely in charge of a largely stable Russian economy, then “welcome to the new world order of disorder”.
The pandemic has impact beyond the infection, disease, death, care, treatment, and vaccination, as it has seriously affected much of the social dynamics, adversely influencing economics, educational enterprise, relationships, and an entire gamut of cultural connections (Singh, 2021).
Ayurveda as a healthcare practice currently has become quite prevalent, especially in the United States, and its formal education is well established in hundreds of mainstream Ayurveda colleges in India, with dozens of institutions in United States and other countries of the world. However, there has been relatively little effort to examine the science of Ayurveda, at least in modern context.
The Indic World Order
Ayurveda encompasses the origin of universe, considering the pranic energy as the source of all matter that consists of the five elements or panchabhutas. The panchabhutas in combination with trigunas (satva, raja, and tama) define the tridosha or prakriti (vata, pitta, and kapha), which together with mind (mana), and atma (spirit or soul) creates the world around us. This idea or order is created by enlightened ones, such as sages or rsis.
We as humans then make observations under the framework of our sensory organs and the organs of actions that provide inputs to our mind and intellect, which leads to an order based on social, psychological, philosophical, religious, scientific, environmental, and several other factors (Singh, 2022).
A new world order needs to be proposed, developed with scientific lens, and put in place for public practice, in accordance with the science of Ayurveda. Let the Ayurveda World Order begin with the august readers of this journal who are the true practitioners and promoters of Ayurveda.
Indic World Order - According to the Vedic cosmology, Pranic energy is expressed in the five elements beginning with the Akasha or ether element, eventually leading to the Earth element that results in the formation of galaxies and planets, including Earth. Various continents of Earth are mobile, and the only Subcontinent, the Indian Subcontinent is formed uniquely to sustain life even through ice ages, providing it a continuous civilization to keep knowledge preserved. The internationalization of the planet creates tribalism, leading to various socio-political systems, many times at odd with each other due to lack of proper understanding, something the Indic tradition of Yoga and Ayurveda can promote to create a peaceful and progressive world order.
The need of hour is to take advantage of the current unprecedented world problems of pandemic, environment, and war, to develop an alternative world order to an anxious world population that needs help from Hindu civilization of India.
References
Singh, B. R. (2021) Let a new Ayurveda World Order Begin…. (Editorial), Ayurveda Journal of Health, Vol 19, issue 2, 4-6.
Image source: India Today
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