Cultivating Culture is the KeyInstitutional Platform Provides Scalability and Sustainability to it

Dr. DC Patra, Ph.DMember, Institute of Indo-Aryan Studies

Today Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated Centre of Gandhian and Indian Studies in Fudan University in Shanghai, China. It certainly is a laudable initiative, particularly coming along with business exchange initiatives as a package. Complimenting the steps taken by the China Government, Prime Minister of India in his speech said that it was relatively easy to open the gates of a countrys boarder for business and for tourism; but opening the gates for exchange of culture and ideas, was a brave step. He cited examples that scholars in the past like Hsuan Tsang visited India purely for search of knowledge. India has ideas of Buddha and Gandhi for the world of today, which is preoccupied with concerns like terrorism and global warming. Ideas of Buddha and Gandhi offer solutions to these problems. One clear signal comes out for us, which is that culture needs cultivation. If we look at culture from the perspective of Sri Sri Thakur Anukul Chandra, culture has to be cultivated at different levels. At the level of individual and family, culture has to be practiced in habits, behavior and such activities that lead us to self development and managing worldly pursuit with Ideal at the centre. At the level of society, we need to set up institutions of excellence for conducting research and demonstration. What will emerge from research has to be applied in socio-political space. Besides, culture at societal level remains alive by way of collective pursuits. Collective pursuits take various forms and expressions. One important objective of culture is to regulate and influence peoples behavior. Here Sri Sri Thakur Anukul Chandras cultural strand plays a very important and appropriate role. Remember, Yajan, Yaajan, Istabhrity, Swastyayani & Sadaachaar? There are few ideological paradigms available in the world, which has such powerful behavior influencing tools as Sri Sri Thakurs ideology provides. Surveying the landscape of Sri Sri Thakurs ideology, philosophy and culture in practice, one comes to view that there is lot of works to be done. Significant to observe, if we have to understand what Indian culture that is relevant today is; our search should end with Sri Sri Thakur. Sri Sri Thakur has provided in his literature the updated and refined elements of Indian culture that we should put to use. What Sri Sri Thakur has provided is a cultural compass for the humanity. But then the real search begins to convert the culture into practice as distinct from culture in frame. A distinction has to be made between what cultural heritage we carry and what culture we live in. Culture has to have a progressive force that will enable the people to take a leap into the future. Moreover, unless the ideology is practiced and accepted at both the mass and the class level, it will not obtain the status of culture. Therefore, there is a need to put Sri Sri Thakurs ideology into practice at all levels. First stage is awareness, second stage is practice, third stage will be perfection and fourth stage is outcome. Sri Sri Thakur, during his lifetime (1888 1969) activated all the four stages simultaneously. Today different segments of people are at different levels of the cycle of this culture activation process. Therefore number of activities cutting across the spectrum of stages has to be undertaken to cover large segment of people. The initiative for cultivating Sri Sri Thakurs culture by default rests with each disciple of Sri Sri Thakur. For each one of us, culture means excellence, achievement and acquisition. What Sri Sri Thakur has given is like raw material to be processed in our life and add value to ourselves. Each one of us has been entrusted with the responsibility of cultivating Sri Sri Thakurs ideology amongst both mass and class. That calls for action on our part. Two sayings of Sri Sri Thakur appear to be having relevance here: (from Magna Dicta, 58, 59)To materialize the wishes of Beloved the Lord, with every fulfillment and sharp tactful immediacy, throwing behind all other calculating back-out tenors is the only way to achieve love, energy and perfect skill.Do and do materialize with every immediacy, in desired time, the wishes of your Superior Beloved as you are asked for; managing all events and affairs for success. This is the only way to thrive with efficiency.What is derived from these two sayings is that working for Sri Sri Thakur is way for our individual skill development and success. I believe, many of us are engaged in some kind of work dedicated for the Lord in individual capacity, at our own place, either alone or along with groups of similar affiliation. How much of those work are adding up to cultivation of culture is for us to examine and evaluate. What is significant to observe is that collectivity adds scalability and sustainability to work. It is therefore important for us to collaborate with each other (at individual level, at group level and also at organizational level) and work together for the culture activation process. Institute of Indo-Aryan Studies provides a platform for research and demonstration of Sri Sri Thakurs ideology. We welcome research minded people to join hands with us in this initiative. This presents an opportunity for those who would like to cultivate the culture.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/16.05.2015Mumbai