India’s Eternal Value system

Sanatana Dharma

India is the oldest civilisation known to mankind, as evidenced by store inscriptions, artefacts and the vast literature on the subject. Western Archaeologists admit that the Vedas are at least ten thousand years old, and that it is the oldest writing of mankind.

The contents of the Vedas and the supportive literature display such an amazing knowledge of the Universe, the Earth, the elements and their potential, astronomical details and events that are not possible to reckon or understand without an asnonishing level of understanding of mathematical principles and calculations. How did they , for instance, reckon the poeriodicity and duration of the day, the month, the year, the turn-around of the earth on its ownn axis, the inclination of the earth, the cause of the climatic and seasonal variations, the eclipses. the planetary positions and conjunctions, the Helio-centric earth (as opposed to the Western theory of a Geo-centric earth, which was corrected by Galileo only 400 years ago!|, the distance from earth to the planets including the Sun, the phases of the moon etc. Our own Josier family had scholars in Astronomy, who authored books (palm-leaf manuscripts) on the subject. In fact, your name Vaidhyanath is to commemmorate the memory of one such great person, wholived only about 300 years ago!

Indians were also well-versed in Medicine, Engineering , Social and Political systems and other branches of knowledge. It is curious to note that the entire ancient Indian literature is in poetry form, prose was unknown, until a few hundred years ago. All teaching and learning was by oral transmission and listening, and in the open air. There were no examinations, since it was collective effort where ever participant had to reach the same level of proficiency. Naturally, there was no competition among the learners. They complimented each other, and learnt from each other. The students had to live with the teacher for 12 years, and all their needs were met by the teacher. No fee was charged!

Surprisingly, India has had no religion, as is now understood in the West or anywhere else. Instead, they had a Universal Code of Conduct, applicable to all people of the World, everywhere and at all times. This was called Sanatana Dharma (Eternal Value system), that detailed the do's and don'ts in relationships with Nature and Environment, with each other etc. The summary of all this was that "One should not try to do to others, what he would not like to be done to himself". It is also noteworthy that people were not asked to be "God-fearing". but only be "God=loving". One can elevate oneself to the level of God, by constant and sustained effort, and this would be possible by a rigid system of disciplining the body-mind-intellect complex. Yoga, Meditation, Group singing as in the Hare Krishna movement all aid this effort.

K.V.Narayanmurti